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The black section below cannot be a certain color:

enter image description here

The answer is the name of a thematic region and a place of landmarks within it that is being rebuilt.

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1
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Joke answer: The forbidden colour cannot be black, as it is black in the question (so clearly black is not forbidden). $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 15 at 1:50

1 Answer 1

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Is the answer the following?

Any Hue (city in Vietnam) of purple is forbidden (from Forbidden Purple City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site within Hue).

Explanation:

Reading counterclockwise, starting immediately after the white section, we have the following RGB colours (? for the unknown colour):

(102, 255, 229)
(102, 179, 255)
(255, 127, 102)
(102, 255, 153)
(229, 255, 102)
(102, 204, 255)
(102, 255, 255)
(179, 255, 102)
?
(255, 204, 102)
(255, 127, 102)
(102, 255, 153)
(255, 127, 102)
(102, 255, 153)
(229, 255, 102)

Taking the hue of each colour (and rounding to the nearest integer) gives

170
210
10
140
70
200
180
90
?
40
10
140
10
140
70

Now notice that these are all divisible by 10.

170 -> 17
210 -> 21
10  -> 1
140 -> 14
70  -> 7
200 -> 20
180 -> 18
90  -> 9
?   -> ?
40  -> 4
10  -> 1
140 -> 14
10  -> 1
140 -> 14
70  -> 7

These numbers are all less than 26, so maybe they represent characters (A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, ..., Z = 26). Let's try:

17 -> Q
21 -> U
1  -> A
14 -> N
7  -> G
20 -> T
18 -> R
9  -> I
?  -> ?
4  -> D
1  -> A
14 -> N
1  -> A
14 -> N
7  -> G

We get the string "QUANGTRI?DANANG"
We would like to know what's between "QUANGTRI" and "DANANG".

The answer is the name of a thematic region and a landmark within it that is being rebuilt.

Quang Tri is a Vietnamese province, and Danang is a Vietnamese city. What's between them? A quick search shows that the Vietnamese city of Hue is geographically sandwiched between them. Furthermore, a UNESCO World Heritage Site within Hue is called the "Forbidden Purple City".

The black section below cannot be a certain color.

Given the name "Forbidden Purple City", I would suppose that purple is the forbidden colour.

To find the colours, I used an online colour picker. To do the deciphering, I wrote this Python script:

cols = [
    (102, 255, 229),
    (102, 179, 255),
    (255, 127, 102),
    (102, 255, 153),
    (229, 255, 102),
    (102, 204, 255),
    (102, 255, 255),
    (179, 255, 102),
    (255, 204, 102),
    (255, 127, 102),
    (102, 255, 153),
    (255, 127, 102),
    (102, 255, 153),
    (229, 255, 102)
]

def hue(r, g, b):
    r, g, b = r / 255.0, g / 255.0, b / 255.0
    mx = max(r, g, b)
    mn = min(r, g, b)
    df = mx - mn
    if mx == mn:
        h = 0
    elif mx == r:
        h = (60 * ((g - b) / df) + 360) % 360
    elif mx == g:
        h = (60 * ((b - r) / df) + 120) % 360
    elif mx == b:
        h = (60 * ((r - g) / df) + 240) % 360
    return h

abc = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
for c in cols:
    i = int(int(round(hue(*c)))/10)
    print(abc[i-1], i)

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  • $\begingroup$ The region is spot-on! For the color not allowed, I think in hindsight "landmark" was the wrong word, it should have been more properly worded "a place of landmarks". I'm sorry for that oversight. Anyway, with that in mind, the goal now is to find where Kien Trung Palace is within Hue. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 14 at 21:33
  • $\begingroup$ @oAlt I see! After some searching, I've (hopefully) added the full answer. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 14 at 21:58
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Yes, exactly that :) $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 14 at 23:33

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