Is
Architectural history a lie? – The Tartarian Mudflood Conspiracy.
A basement window looking out to Murray Street - Gawler.
Recently on the Haunts of Adelaide Facebook
page, we have had a few conspiracy theories that certain older buildings in
Adelaide were built by a highly advanced global empire that visited Australia
(and other locations around the globe) pre-European settlement. The
conspiracy is that the Tartarian global empire was intentionally erased, and that
history was rewritten to make buildings seem younger and more modern.[1]
Subscribers to the theory believe that a vast, technologically advanced empire
arose in north-central Asia, and spread peacefully across the globe. They
believe that approximately one hundred years ago a great cataclysm occurred
that toppled the empire which led to many of its buildings being destroyed, and
its history erased from records.[2]
European
Cartographers often used the toponym ‘Tartary’ to describe Central Asia. The
area was bound by the Caspian Sea, the Ural Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
There were a multitude of different cultures living within this area. Tartary
was not defined, nor did it represent one race of people. In modern terms, this
area spans from the east of the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea and includes
Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and Siberia.[3]
The
Tartarian ‘theory’ was originated and perpetuated by pseudo-historians who
combined a Russian fervour for their allegedly lost empire (Tartaria being the
supposed real name of Russia according to some conspiracy believers) with an
alternative historical chronology. Basically, the timeline we all know is
actually much shorter in reality. This theory has then been picked up by
influencers and shared as a fact being hidden by someone in authority – usually
a shadow Government, the Rothschilds, the Illuminati or the Secret Owl Society. [4]
Buildings
such as the Capitol in Washington, the Pyramids in Egypt, The Great Wall of
China, and Bastian Star forts, such as seen in Portugal, Netherlands, and Sri
Lanka (Sri Lanka was a Portuguese and Dutch colony, so no mystery how the
design was utilized there). Here in Adelaide, buildings being assigned to the
Tartarian include the Adelaide Town Hall, the General Post Office and the
Edmund Wright Building. This is despite detailed records of design and
photographic evidence of construction.
One of the things that Tartarian conspiracy
theory believers love to argue as a feature of Tartarian architecture is
buildings with basement windows. If you look around Adelaide, Port Adelaide,
Gawler, or Kapunda, you’ll see this common feature that allows light to get
into basement rooms with pre-electric light (it is widely believed that Port
Adelaide has lower basements because the city was ‘built up’ to stop tidal
floods, however, there is no evidence of this. One would think if this were the
case the original ground-level doors would be visible in what are now
basements, and sub-basements, that were originally basements, would be present
in all buildings).
Another feature
of the conspiracy is that much of our history has been intentionally razed or
destroyed by disasters and war. An example is the fire in the Norte-Dame de
Paris, the 12th-century Roman Catholic cathedral in France was seen
as a deliberate attempt to destroy more Tartarian architecture by conspiracy
believers.[5]
Some believers in the theory cite Napoleon’s invasion of Russia as the beginning of the rewriting of Tartarian
history and add that further World Wars destroyed much of what was left of the
empire in the 20th century. However, they do not cite how Napoleon’s
army overcame the vastly superior weaponry of the Tartarian – as one must
assume, a world power with such great architectural stills, would also have an
advanced military and weaponry.[6]
There is little reasoning offered on
why such a coverup and rewriting of history has occurred. Much of the rhetoric
involves believers riffing on old maps, weaving together narratives based on
conjecture picking out small inconsistencies, and a flagrant disregard for
documented history.
There also seems to be little or no
understanding of economic differences between now and two hundred years ago.
Today, glass, steel and concrete are reasonably cheap to build with; stone,
terracotta and marble are not. It was also much cheaper to hire skilled workers
and labourers two hundred years ago than it is today.
© Allen Tiller 2025
[1] Emilie
Le Beau Lucchesi, What Is the Lost Empire Of
Tartaria?, Discover, (2023), https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/what-is-the-lost-empire-of-tartaria.
[2]
Zach Mortice, ‘Inside the ‘Tartarian Empire,’ the QAnon of
Architecture’, Bloomberg, (2021), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-27/inside-architecture-s-wildest-conspiracy-theory.
[3]
Mark C. Elliot, "The Limits of Tartary: Manchuria in Imperial and National
Geographies". The Journal of Asian Studies. Vol. 59,
(2000), pp. 603–646.
[4]
Josie Adams, Inside the wild architecture conspiracy theory gaining traction
online, The Spin Off, (2022),
https://thespinoff.co.nz/internet/14-01-2022/inside-the-wild-architecture-conspiracy-theory-gaining-traction-online.
[5]
Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, What Is the Lost Empire Of Tartaria?, Discover,
(2023), https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/what-is-the-lost-empire-of-tartaria.
[6]
Zach Mortice, ‘Inside the ‘Tartarian Empire,’ the QAnon of
Architecture’, Bloomberg, (2021), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-27/inside-architecture-s-wildest-conspiracy-theory.
