International Cooperation - Seville Spain Mystery Cache

This puzzle cache is a celebration of history, different cultures and bridging the international gap.

Anyone familiar with the history of the Country Club Plaza can tell you that this beautiful part of our grand city was modeled after Seville Spain.  The brain child of J.C. Nichols, a prominent developer of commercial and residential real estate, his objective was to "develop whole residential neighborhoods that would attract an element of people who desired a better way of life…”  His philosophies about city planning greatly influenced other developments in the United States including Beverly Hills.  There are more than thirty Spanish themed statues, murals, fountains and tile mosaics on display in the area, as well as major architectural reproductions, such as a half-sized Giralda Tower of Seville (the Spanish one is pictured to the right) and the Seville Light Fountain which is an exact replica of the Plaza de Los Reyes fountain in Seville, Spain.  Both of these can be seen at the posted coordinates. (The posted coordinates however are not where you need to search for this geocache.)

Sister Cities International was created at President Eisenhower’s 1956 White House conference on citizen diplomacy.  Eisenhower envisioned an organization that could be the hub of peace and prosperity by creating bonds between people from different cities around the world.  By forming these relationships, President Eisenhower reasoned that people of different cultures could celebrate and appreciate their differences and build partnerships that would lessen the chance of new conflicts.  It is in this sprit I propose the following puzzle cache.

To complete this cache you must do the following:

1. Solve the simple puzzle that follows to increase your knowledge of our first sister city.
2. Visit the coordinates from the puzzle and find the second set of coordinates.  Now this is where it gets tricky, those are coordinates to a different cache …in Seville Spain.  Don’t worry you aren’t required to go to Spain (however that would be pretty awesome!)
3. Next you need to locate a partner in the area of this caches sister cache (GC4NC2X) to aid you in your efforts.  Once they have completed the cache in their city and visited stage 1 on their side the two of you can exchange information.
4. Now armed with the coordinates for the cache on this side of the Atlantic you can seek out the cache, sign your name and claim your prize. Be sure to list the name of your partner in your log so they get credit.

In the spirit of fairness, only partner with someone who has yet to find the cache.

Giralda Tower & Light Fountain in Kansas City

Plaza de España

The puzzle for stage 1:

N 39° SP.AIN' W 94° 35.&KC'

S - The Cathedral of St. Mary was built on the former site of the city's mosque. It is among the largest of all medieval and Gothic cathedrals, in terms of both area and volume. The interior is the longest nave in Spain, and is lavishly decorated with large quantities of gold. Take the 3^rd digit of the year construction began. 0

P – The Universal Exposition (Worlds’ Fair) was held in Seville Spain to celebrate the 500^th year anniversary of a significant event.  Take the last digit of this year. 2

A – The oldest known name for Seville which is interpreted as “lowlands” came from the Phoenicians.  How many characters is it? 4

I - In a grand celebration on the country club plaza Kansas Citians celebrated their first sister city. Take the 3rd digit of the year this occurred and divide it in half. 3

N - San Pablo Airport is the main airport for Seville and is Andalusia’s second airport. The airport handled 4,051,392 passengers and just under 5,000 tons of cargo in 2009.  Take the number of terminals it has and subtract one. 0

& - The motto for Seville has a symbol that looks like a number in it.  It is popularly believed to be a rebus signifying the Spanish "No me ha dejado", meaning "It [Seville] has not abandoned me". The emblem is present on the municipal flag and features on city property such as manhole covers, and Christopher Columbus's tomb in the Cathedral. Take this number and divide by 2. 4

K - Following the Christopher Columbus expedition to the New World, the results from his claiming territory and trade for the Crown of Spain in the West Indies began to profit the city, as all goods imported from the New World had to pass through the Casa de Contratacion before being distributed throughout the rest of Spain. A 'golden age of development' commenced in Seville, due to its being the only port awarded the royal monopoly for trade with the growing Spanish colonies in the Americas and the influx of riches from them.  How many million(s) is the population thought to reach during this time? 1

C – An iconic bridge in Seville known by many as the Puente de Triana spans the Guadalquivir River.  Its official name however ends with a roman numeral.  What is this number? 2

The Cathedral of Saint Mary

A special thanks to my Spanish caching partner, CANIVAL, for his part in making this cache come together!

Permission for this cache placement has been granted by Director Gayle Terry.