With the end of the world slated for December 21, 2012, Mayans in southeastern Mexico are hoping to draw scores of tourists next year. More than 50 million people are expected in 2012 to visit the regions of Chiapas, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche—a remarkable total given that Mexico as a whole usually receives about 22 million tourists each year.

 

Those living in Maya territory are planning a year’s worth of celebrations, while emphasizing that the end referred to in the Mayan calendar is really the end of an era, not the end of humanity. Scholars of Mayan culture say that the date represents the close of the 13th bak’tun, a 394-year cycle. They emphasize that there is no evidence that the Mayans thought the world would end in 2012.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Mexico Mayan Region Launches Apocalypse Countdown (by Adriana Gomez Licon, Associated Press)

End of World in 2012? Maya “Doomsday” Calendar Explained (by John Roach, National Geographic News)