The U.S. version of the Da Vinci Code Google Quest is coming to its conclusion, with the 10,000 finalists currently receiving their cryptexes in the mail, soon to be followed by emails pointing them at the final challenge (see here for an image of one of the cryptexes). This concluding challenge will be based completely on the time taken to complete the final puzzles (that is, not the time of day you finish), which can be done at any time in the allotted 48 hour period. Quite simply, the fastest of the 10,000 wins the major prize.

Obviously, it's unlikely that you'll find the answers to the final challenge on our Da Vinci Quest on Google - Solutions page (which has had over 150,000 hits during the past month, and also has had slmost 500 comments). But please do let us know if you're one of the finalists, and it would be awesome to see a winner out of one of the crew (I'm in Australia, and therefore ineligible to even get one of those little cryptexes, let alone the major prize).