All of Mexico usually lures about 22 million foreigners in a year. Mexico's tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors by next year only to the regions of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche. In southern Mexico, the heart of Maya territory, a yearlong celebration is planned. Films depicting the end of the world - including the 2009 movie, "2012? - are contributing to the mounting hype as well as to misinformation, experts say. Yet others are capitalizing on the heightened interest. "Human beings seem to be attracted by apocalyptic ideas and always assume the worst," Gronemeyer said.īelievers have taken the end-of-the world fears to the Internet with hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs. 21, 2012, on a brick found at other ruins. The blogosphere exploded with more speculation when Mexico's archaeology institute acknowledged on Nov. 1, 2000.įor some reason, Gronemeyer says, people have ignored evidence that dates beyond 2012 were recorded. Gronemeyer, of La Trobe University in Australia, compares the supposed Mayan prophecies to the "Y2K" hype, when people feared all computer systems would crash when the new millennium began on Jan. "What happens is that our expectations and fears get projected on the Maya calendar."
"The Maya are viewed by many westerners as exotic folks that were supposed to have had some special, secret knowledge," said Mayan scholar Sven Gronemeyer. The doomsday theories stem from a stone tablet discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describes the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on Dec. Their Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. The Mayans predicted a final event that included a solar shift, a Venus transit and violent earthquakes. Advanced mathematics and primitive astronomy flourished, creating what many have called the most accurate calendar in the world. The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. 21 - failed to materialize.īut in the flurry of doomsday predictions - there have been similar dire warnings about the world coming to an end from various cultures, including Native Americans, the Chinese, Egyptians and even the Irish - the supposed Mayan prophecy seems to have held the most sway with believers. Christian radio host Harold Camping faced widespread ridicule when his predictions that the world would end twice this year - on May 21, and then on Oct. There have been many end of times predictions over the years.
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