Solved cryptogram
Gold does not tarnish, so a buried piece looks the same when it is dug up thousands of years on.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to Royal Society of Chemistry.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
Almost every other metal reacts with oxygen or sulfur in the ground and comes out of an excavation as a corroded lump. Gold does neither, which is why grave goods from three thousand years ago still gleam and why the metal became a store of value in the first place. It takes an aggressive mixture of acids to dissolve it, and that mixture was named for the fact.
The claim comes from Royal Society of Chemistry.
- SourceRoyal Society of Chemistry
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultyhard
- Length75 letters, 21 unique
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.