Editing Cryptography

Welcome to '''Cryptotourism''', a sightseeing guide for cryptography and its history. As a wiki, everyone is welcome to start new articles, add or update information, correct mistakes, and so on!

==Articles==

* See [[:Category:Cryptotourism]] for the list of all articles.

* See [[List of places by country]] for an index by country

* See [[Cipher machines]] for the index of encryption devices

==Why start such a site?==

One reason is that, in 2003, [[User:Matt Crypto|I]] visited Chicago and had the chance to briefly visit the [[Chicago Museum of Science and Industry]]. I had no idea, however, that the museum housed the U-505 and other material of interest in the history of cryptography; I managed to miss these exhibits altogether! I was quite disappointed to find out about it only later after my return to the UK.

I hope that this site might help people with an interest in the history of cryptography to find out about things to see — things that they might never otherwise have heard about.

When complete, this guide should be able to answer question such as:

# I'm visiting Chicago; while I'm there, is there anywhere worth visiting with regards to cryptography?

# Where can I go to see an [[Enigma]] machine?

Currently, this wiki has not been publicised, although if you've stumbled across it, you would be very welcome to contribute. After I've done a little work seeding the wiki with a few basic articles and structure, I'll publicise the Wiki to a few groups and people.

''Things to include:''

* Articles on museums which either focus on cryptography (e.g. [[National Cryptologic Museum|National Cryptologic Museum]], [[Bletchley Park]]) or which include items of interest in cryptography, e.g. [[Smithsonian]], [[British Science Museum|British Science Museum]].

* Locations of interest to cryptography; perhaps things like the birthplace of [[Alan Turing]], memorials to cryptographers, current and past headquarters of crypto agencies, undeciphered inscriptions, and so on.

* Handy general information about a museum/location (how to get there, opening times, prices, etc.)

* Specific information about the cryptographic aspects of a museum/location.

* Photographs.

* "Index articles" — for example, an [[Enigma]] article should list locations of viewable Enigma machines; the [[United Kingdom]] article should list all the interesting locations within the UK, etc.

''Things to exclude:''

* Detailed information about cryptography or its history; this is better handled by linking to [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]], a free encyclopedia. At the start of an article, a couple of sentences introducing the topic should suffice.

* Guides to places or museums outside of the scope of cryptography; this is better handled by [[Wikitravel:Wikitravel|Wikitravel]], a free travel guide.

''Style:''

* If available, a link to appropriate Wikipedia or WikiTravel articles should be provided after the headword; such as: "'''United Kingdom''' ''[[Wikipedia:United Kingdom|(Wikipedia)]] [[Wikitravel:United Kingdom|(Wikitravel)]]''..."

* We want to keep the wiki up to date, as, for example, a museum might move a collection into archive storage for a while and so on.

{{cryptotourism}}