Countdown to Hallowe'en 2016: New Atlantis at Denver International Airport

An enormous blue horse sculpture with glowing red eyes greets Denver International Airport entrants. During construction in 2006, part of the sculpture fell on the artist, Luis Jiménez and killed him. Officially dubbed Blue Mustang (2008), locals nicknamed the 9,000 pound stallion 'Blucifer,' and decided it looks like the pale demon horse carrying Death, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Others say it relates to the Blue Star Kachina in a Hopi prophecy of the destruction of the world. Image Source: flickr.

One of the pinpoints on the globe which conspiracy theorists associate with apocalypse and New World Order is Denver International Airport. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry scoffs at this, but acknowledges that the airport has become a hub for conspiracy theories about how the world is changing.

Locals think the airport may be a secret shelter for the government, or a military base in the event of global conflict. Do this city and its airport have more strategic importance than we know? Some think the airport has underground tunnel connections to an official bunker further west. Truthers and New Age occultists suspect the airport is the Illuminati's site of 'New Atlantis' after World War III.

Image Source: flickr.

Millennial paranoids got this idea from a novel, New Atlantis, by Sir Francis Bacon, published in 1627, which you can read here. In the book, Bacon explained the driving motivation of secular rationalists:

"The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible."

Their foundational centre, the triumphant capital of enlightened intellectuals, would be named New Atlantis. Bacon situated this endgame metropolis in America:

"For the several employments and offices of our fellows; we have twelve that sail into foreign countries, under the names of other nations, (for our own we conceal); who bring us the books, and abstracts, and patterns of experiments of all other parts. These we call Merchants of Light. 

"We have three that collect the experiments which are in all books. These we call Depredators. 

"We have three that collect the experiments of all mechanical arts; and also of liberal sciences; and also of practices which are not brought into arts. These we call Mystery-men. 

"We have three that try new experiments, such as themselves think good. These we call Pioneers or Miners.

"We have three that draw the experiments of the former four into titles and tables, to give the better light for the drawing of observations and axioms out of them. These we call Compilers. 

"We have three that bend themselves, looking into the experiments of their fellows, and cast about how to draw out of them things of use and practise for man's life, and knowledge, as well for works as for plain demonstration of causes, means of natural divinations, and the easy and clear discovery of the virtues and parts of bodies. These we call Dowry-men or Benefactors. 

"Then after divers meetings and consults of our whole number, to consider of the former labours and collections, we have three that take care, out of them, to direct new experiments, of a higher light, more penetrating into nature than the former. These we call Lamps. 

"We have three others that do execute the experiments so directed, and report them. These we call Inoculators. 

"Lastly, we have three that raise the former discoveries by experiments into greater observations, axioms, and aphorisms. These we call Interpreters of Nature. 

"We have also, as you must think, novices and apprentices, that the succession of the former employed men do not fail; besides, a great number of servants and attendants, men and women. And this we do also: we have consultations, which of the inventions and experiences which we have discovered shall be published, and which not: and take all an oath of secrecy, for the concealing of those which we think fit to keep secret: though some of those we do reveal sometimes to the state and some not.

Critics argue that Bacon's vision closely describes modern international globalization's rampant science, technology, and materialist consumerism. Conspiracy theorists believe that Bacon's work inspired the Illuminati when they planned their future capital of the New World Order. When the theorists began to guess where that projected site might be, they focused on Denver, Colorado, USA.

In 2009, the Telegraph posted a curious slideshow of World War III comics, without attributed author or artist, entitled, "Operation Blackjack - the story of a series of terrorist nuclear attacks on major western cities and the aftermath." This series caught the attention of conspiracy theorists and became notorious on the Internet. In the slideshow, Denver becomes the capital of the future state of the Union of North America. In reality, 'Operation Blackjack' is a series of weekend wargames staged in locations in the USA; an affiliated UK site is here. Image Source: The Telegraph via Youtube.

The full Telegraph slideshow. Video Source: Youtube.

Image Source: pinterest.

The most outlandish commentators believe Denver International Airport has something to do with space aliens - containing them, entertaining them, negotiating with them, creating hybrid people with them - anything you can imagine in the style of the X-Files. The airport has become a hub for fringe paranoids as well as travelers. The most unhinged theories link President Barack Obama's visits to the airport with the disintegrating Oort Cloud comet, Elenin, as well as Nibiru.

To dispel rumours in 2010, officials allowed reporters into the underground tunnels (home of the airport's unused automated baggage system), while laughing staff greeted the reporters dressed as lizard aliens. When it comes to Millennial folklore, you cannot get weirder than Denver International Airport, for the following reasons:

• Locals felt Denver's Stapleton Airport did not need to be replaced.
• Stories of the airport's construction and promotion are entangled with crazy rumours from the 1990s about Bill Clinton's administration.
• The airport took forever to build and went billions over budget, total cost, USD $4.8 billion.
• It officially spans 52.4 square miles; some sites claim the airport's expanded area is 85 square miles, making it the third largest in the world; this is unusually large, even for an international airport; by contrast, Heathrow Airport covers 4.74 square miles; LAX covers 5 square miles
• Denver is roughly equidistant from any location in the continental USA (more precisely, the centre of the country is in eastern Kansas).
• It has a gigantic, off-limits underground complex, parts of which are still accessible, with construction workers rumoured to be frightened into silence on the extent of the complex, all of which is officially denied.
• Five supposed multi-storey buildings were constructed underground, beneath the airport, concealed or filled in, also officially denied, but evident in plans.
• Continued unknown underground construction, giant mountains of displaced earth.
• In one spot, the piled earth looks like a deliberately-built step pyramid, or an ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, or Assyrian Ziggurat.
• Weird art with apocalyptic, demonic, pandemic, genocidal, and mass death themes, considered inappropriate for an airport.
• The airport has a Masonic time capsule set to be opened in 2094.
• The runways seem to be built in a swastika shape.
• The fences look like they are built to keep people in, not keep people out; this led to the theory that the airport is a concentration-camp-in-waiting.
• Masonic plaques, signs, symbols, and coded messages dotted around the airport.
• Rumours of famous and powerful people buying nearby properties under aliases (of course, Colorado is home to some of the world's most exclusive ski resorts).
• Google Maps has enabled people to study the layout of Denver from a satellite's view; they see a park shaped like a foetus, another park forming a Star of David (the star can convey the esoteric message, 'as above, so below,' unifying male and female principles in the magic of manifestation). Several official buildings align to form the Vitruvian Man, with landmarks creating either the chakra system or the Tree of Life, superimposed over his figure.
• In 2010, the airport added to its grounds a 26-foot tall, 7-tonne statue of Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of the death, the dead and the afterlife. Not everyone was thrilled; a local art gallery spokeswoman dismissed local complaints: "'It’s just a piece of art to celebrate the King Tut Exhibit to the museum,' said Andrea Folton, director of communication at the Denver Art Museum, said." A statue of Anubis appeared in other cities where the King Tut show also toured.
• On 11 September 2016, a school bus driver unexpectedly drove off course onto the grounds of Denver International Airport, and crashed the bus into an airport pillar; there was also a bomb scare there on 15 September 2016.

Image Source: flickr.

What the Internet thinks of Blucifer. Image Source: flickr.

The statue of Anubis at Denver International Airport (2010). Images Sources: Youtube and Cyber Space and Time.

One of many Denver Airport New World Order conspiracy theory videos. Video Source: Youtube.

Notre Denver: a demon in a suitcase decks the wall at the airport. Image Source: Pravin Premkumar/flickr via Atlas Obscura.

Notre Denver: another gargoyle in a suitcase sculpture. Click to enlarge. Image Source: Floyd Anderson.

Blogger Floyd Anderson points out that the demon suitcases bear the famous luggage label, 'Samsonite,' which is an anagram for 'Mason site.' Image Source: Floyd Anderson.

The Masonic dedication stone and time capsule at the airport, erected by the 'New World Airport Commission,' directs the people of Denver to open the capsule a century after the airport's founding, in the year 2094 CE. Image Source: Floyd Anderson.

Another Masonic plaque in the airport, in Braille or code. Image Source: Floyd Anderson.

The Gold-Silver Masonic symbol, a sign of the Hermetic pillars of the sun and moon (see my related post here). Conspiracy theorists believe this symbol refers to Australia Antigen and a planned pandemic. Image Source: The Chive.

Navajo inscription on the floor of the airport: "translated from the Navajo language [it] means 'the mountain that is white.' The theorists believe that this in reference to Mt. Blanc or White Mountain in France where the Knights Templar signed their charter." Image Source: Hub Pages.

Image Source: Geek.

More inscriptions on the floors. The airport authorities explained that, "Cochetopa, Sisnaajini and Dzit Dit Gaii ... are ... Navajo terms for geographical sites in Colorado. Braaksma and Villarreal are actually the names of Carolyn Braaksma and Mark Villarreal, artists who worked on the airport's sculptures and paintings." Image Source: Strange History.

Murals from artist Leo Tanguma excited curiosity. The artist denied any hidden meanings in these murals in interviews; it is just his style. The extinction mural is part of In Peace and Harmony with Nature. Images Source: The Chive.

The genocide mural. Images Source: The Chive.

The genocide mural is part of Children of the World Dream of Peace. Image Source: Buzzfeed.

The German boy hammering the world's weapons mural: Children of the World Dream of Peace. Image Source: The Chive.

The mural of a future new world without adults, where children, wearing the traditional garb of the nations which survive the depicted apocalypse, worship a mystical plant: In Peace and Harmony With Nature. Image Source: The Chive.

The supposed original plans with five buildings under the airport. Image Source: The Chive.

A new sculpture, Xólotl: Dios Perro, displayed in 2014 at the airport by artist Oscar Becerra-Mora, depicted the Aztec demon dog god of lightning and death. Image Source: Westword.

The runways. Image Source: Geek.

Image Source: Airport Master.

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