About the book: 2023 / Since ancient times, man has tried to invent ciphers that cannot be cracked. Lovers hiding their relationship, secret societies and church orders, intelligence officers, diplomats and military officers are just a small part of those who sought to preserve their secrets at any cost. The Catholic priests who accompanied the conquistadors were determined to destroy the variety of written texts they found in the native cities. They did this, apparently, because they considered it their duty to eradicate paganism in the colonies. This is a monstrous crime against history. Then representatives of other European powers will understand with horror what the Spaniards have done, but it will be too late: only a few texts were saved from the “righteous” fire, which were immediately transported to Europe to preserve the heritage of the destroyed civilization. But scientists were baffled by the Mayan glyphs, which turned into a code, the key to which was lost with the death of the last native speaker of the language. Moving between eras, historian and writer Sinclair Mackay talks about the most famous ciphers and codebreakers, cunning spies and counterintelligence agents, poets and scientists who included secret writing in their works, and, of course, about all kinds of codes. In the Bible, the most interesting and incredible codes can be found in the Revelation of John the Theologian. This tale of the coming apocalypse is well known to everyone: the four horsemen are still the main symbols of disturbing changes, and the number of the beast - 666 - is still a source of controversy among theologians around the world. This is the last book of the Bible, written around 95 AD. e. by a certain John from the island of Patmos (some suggest that its author was John the Evangelist). This terrible book is almost 2000 years old, which means that we are faced with one of the most ancient mysteries in the history of cryptanalysis. For no one has any doubt that all the terrifying events of the Revelation of John the Theologian serve as a kind of encrypted message. Readers will learn about Mayan glyphs and biblical prophecies, the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, the Enigma encryption machine, the messages scientists send into space, and the future of cryptography. Much attention is paid to ancient writings, such as the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone, and how to decipher them. Each chapter comes with logical problems, codes and riddles that will allow the reader to feel like a cryptographer. It was an era when most European states were engulfed in the flames of war, an era of fierce battles and ruthless persecution of dissidents, when all-powerful kings, emperors and barons fought among themselves for faith and power. For some, European history of the 17th century. may seem like a prototype of the apocalypse. But it was in this century that the French king Louis XIII created the first Cabinet Noir, or “black cabinet,” thereby transforming cryptography into a kind of industry that would become one of the main forces of the state. It was an age when the life of a person or even an entire city could depend on the meaning of each message..