Codes of Civilization. Codes, Secret Messages, and Hidden Signs in Human History

Since ancient times, humans have attempted to invent ciphers that cannot be broken. Lovers hiding their connections, secret societies and religious orders, spies, diplomats, and military personnel — these are just a small part of those who have sought at any cost to keep their secrets.
Moving between eras, historian and writer Sinclair McKay tells the stories of the most famous ciphers and decipherers, ingenious spies and counterintelligence agents, poets and scientists who included cryptography in their works, and of course, about all sorts of codes.
Readers will learn about the Mayan glyphs and biblical prophecies, the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, the "Enigma" cipher machine, the messages that scientists send into space, and the future of cryptography. Considerable attention is given to ancient scripts, such as the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone, and the methods of their deciphering. Each chapter includes logical puzzles, ciphers, and riddles that allow the reader to feel like a cryptographer.