The Maya considered the end of the world a time of global catastrophes and cardinal changes, behind which a new era begins. Recently, this ancient civilization and its calendar has attracted the attention of so many people around the world. All this is due to the fact that this year ends the next cycle of the Mayan calendar, and this is considered the end of the world. In any case, this is how the ancient texts of the Indians are interpreted.

Maya is one of the civilizations of Central America, which fell into decline even before the discovery of America by Europeans. This civilization in its heyday achieved amazing success in the field of astronomy and mathematics, urban planning and writing. Their number system was not decimal, but vigesimal. It was based on the fact that when counting, not only fingers, but also toes were used. Long before the Europeans, the Maya used the concept of zero in their calculations, which indicates high development mathematics and education. The end of the Mayan world was considered a periodic event, which meant the end of one era and the beginning of another.

According to Mayan beliefs, the universe consists of a series of cycles, which the Indians called "Suns". The first Sun lasted 4008 years and died as a result of earthquakes, and then was eaten by jaguars. The Second Sun lasted 4010 years, but was destroyed by the wind and powerful cyclones. The third Sun existed for 4081 years and died from a fiery rain that poured from the craters of volcanoes. The fourth Sun lasted 5026 years and was destroyed by a global flood. We live in the era of the Fifth Sun, which, according to the Indian calendar, will end in December 2012. According to calculations, our epoch lasts 5125 years. The Maya predict the end of the world from the movement of the Earth, as a result of which everyone will die.

Currently, the end of the Mayan world is associated with the parade of planets, which will occur in December 2012, or with a sharp change in the tilt of the Earth's axis. The Maya were talking about a disastrous movement, so the predictors are trying to find clues that would help them understand what to expect in December.

However, in Maya beliefs there is information that during the time of the death of the Suns, some people managed to survive. It was they who told about those times and those catastrophes that they happened to endure.

It should be noted that the stone calendar referred to by many doomsday predictors is actually Aztec. Yes, it is based on the Mayan calendar, which was widely used as a basis by other civilizations of Central and South America. In turn, many researchers believe that the Mayans themselves borrowed their calendar from the Olmecs, an even more ancient Indian civilization. That stone monolith, with a carved calendar, which so often flashes on the screens, is the “Stone of the Sun” of the Aztecs - a basalt disk, with signs and symbols carved on it. Previously, it was colored, but the colors have faded over time. Moreover, there are places on it where symbols and signs have also been distorted and destroyed, so that the decoding of the calendar can be considered not quite complete and correct.

It can be said that the Maya have already experienced a kind of end of the world. The civilization of the ancient Indians for unknown reasons left their cities, and the Europeans then occupied these territories and mixed with the local population. However, the Maya people (group of peoples) have survived to this day, which inhabit the territory of Mexico, especially its southern states. These people are descendants ancient civilization. Some of them switched to Spanish, but many speak the languages ​​\u200b\u200bof the Mayan group. So there is a possibility that the end of the Mayan world was meant as a change of civilizations, and not as the total destruction of all life.

One way or another, but in 2012 the ancient stone calendar of the Indians beckons and frightens with its mystery. Today, disputes are raging about the interpretation of the texts carved on the calendar. Some researchers argue that the Maya did not use such a concept as the end of the world at all. Supporters of this version believe that translators from Europe already put such a concept into the texts, and the Indians themselves believed in cyclical processes in the Universe: the end of one era gives rise to a new one. Thus, many do not find anything sinister in the Mayan calendar - the calendar simply ends, an era ends, and a new one will follow.

At the same time, there are radical opinions that the Mayans could not make any prediction at all. Supporters of this opinion argue that the Maya civilization did not have sufficient knowledge for such long-term forecasts. But what about the fact that the calendar of the ancient Indians is much more accurate than our modern one? Gregorian calendar? Disputes do not subside, but flare up with renewed vigor. After all, the date, which is interpreted as the end of the Mayan world, is quite accurately indicated on the calendar.

Whether or not to believe the predictions of the ancient people of America - each person decides for himself. Someone is frightened by information in the media, someone is under the impression of disaster films in the spirit of "2012", and someone just lives his life, not paying attention to some Mayan doomsday.

It is likely that humanity will never stop trying to predict the future, and especially try to predict the possible end of the world. I would like to believe that this time the prediction will turn out to be erroneous and the world will survive. And if we believe optimistic predictions that in December 2012 we will move to a qualitatively new level of knowledge and achievements, then this will be the most interesting event in the history of all mankind.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the fact that the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar, according to the calculations of the ancient inhabitants of the Yucatan Peninsula, will come in 2012. It is in this year, December 21, that the chronology of the Mayan Indians, compiled for hundreds of millennia, ends. Why modern people, armed scientific knowledge, suddenly alarmed because many centuries ago, some priests of the ancient people cut off their calendar on some date? Is it possible to believe, on the basis of fragmentary data that have come down to our days, that the end of the world in the Mayan calendar will happen on this very day? What are the grounds for this?

According to the teachings of the ancient Maya, on December 21, 2012, the Jaguar era will end, lasting five thousand years, and the world will end its existence. Natural disasters will begin, death and destruction will rule the earth. Human civilization will be destroyed...

It turns out that December 21, 2012 is not such an easy day. And it is unlikely that this date was accidentally chosen by the priests. As astronomers have calculated, on this day our Sun will enter the plane of the Milky Way. And we will have the opportunity to become eyewitnesses of a grandiose parade of planets of a truly universal scale. On the same line will be not only the celestial bodies of the solar system, but also other star clusters. From the center of the galaxy there will be a kind of beam, on the plane of which the planets and stars of our galaxy will be located. Such a unique cosmic event is extremely rare, the previous parade of celestial bodies of this level, according to the calculations of astronomers, was more than 25 thousand years ago. What consequences await our galaxy and the solar system, how the habitual rhythm of the movement of space objects will change is unknown. Some scientists suggest that solar system accelerates to the center of the galaxy, or even “gets lost” in interstellar space, all the forces that bind the planets will be violated. As scientists suggest, a new stage will begin for the Universe, but no one knows what this renewal will be. So far, one thing is clear, the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar was predicted with astronomical accuracy up to a year, up to a month, up to a day ... Maybe this does not mean the end of the Earth as celestial body, but the fact that people's lives will be subjected to some terrible unprecedented trials is beyond doubt.

The end of the world according to the Mayan calendar - is it true or an attempt to unleash a stupid sensation?

Many peoples of our planet have similar teachings, coming from antiquity, that the life of human civilization is built according to certain world cycles. One era is replaced by another, this process is accompanied by cataclysms, catastrophes and destruction, the death of most of the human population. Then the next cycle comes, a new race is reborn, a new civilization develops. The Indians measured these epochs by the "system of the Suns". According to the teachings of the Maya priests, after the appearance of mankind, four periods, or "Suns", have already passed. So, the period of the First Sun lasted 4008 years, and it ended with a flood and the death of civilization. A terrible hurricane destroyed humanity at the end of the Second Sun, after 4010 years. Those who lived in the Third Sun, which lasted 4081 years, were burned by the fiery rain pouring from the sky, as well as the lava of volcanoes erupting all over the planet. Lasting 5056 years, the Fourth Sun ended with the death of people from starvation, which was the result of floods and a "sea of ​​blood and fire."

As the priests of antiquity calculated, the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar will come at the end of the Fifth Sun, the last in the Great Cycle, on December 21, 2012. It has been going on for 5126 years. After that, a new period will begin. That's just what will happen to the human civilization existing on earth now, that is, to us?

It is not only the completion of the fifth period that causes concern, but also the fact that, in Mayan terminology, it is called the Sun of Movement. Allegedly, there will be some kind of "movement" that will lead to the death of all living things. Many modern researchers suggest that such a concept denotes a shift earth's axis.

Be that as it may, no matter what cataclysms the future promises us, and the predicted end of the world according to the Mayan calendar will happen on the day appointed many centuries ago, people always have hope that the terrible scenario will suddenly be revised, softened and we will be given a chance survive. After all, cyclicality involves the repetition of periods, and not the completion of everything at once.

While civilized mankind continues to worry about the prophecy about the end of the world in December 2012, made by the ancient Maya, scientists are finding more and more evidence that the priests of this people who made these calculations did not mean the apocalypse at all. Mayan elders living in Guatemala also agree with them.

Those who on December 21 (23), 2012 are looking forward to the next end of the world, which the ancient Mayans allegedly predicted, seem to have experienced deep disappointment, as scientists have once again confirmed the failure of this prophecy. Not so long ago, a scientist from the University of California at Santa Barbara Gerado Aldana published his monograph on the study of the calendar of these mysterious inhabitants of Central America, in which he convincingly proved that the previous interpreters of this calendar were mistaken by exactly two months. So the indicated date is most likely February 19 (21), 2013.

In general, the Maya Indians, who lived in Central America from about the third millennium BC, had several calendars. Three of their systems of reckoning have come down to us - the Solar calendar, the Ritual calendar and the so-called Long calendar. And if the first and second are accurate enough, then the latter, by the way, according to which the notorious end of the world is calculated, is very confusing and mysterious.

Printable version Font Send to a friendThe solar calendar set an annual cycle of 365 days. Each Mayan year was divided into 18 months, 20 days each, and five more days were added for even counting. These mysterious inhabitants of pre-Columbian America did not recognize leap years - indeed, why complicate your life? It is believed that it was this calendar that the Indians used to determine the start and end times of agricultural work.

The ritual calendar, apparently, was lunar, its cycle was 260 days. According to it, the dates of the most important religious holidays were determined. This calendar began, according to scientists, on the first new moon after the winter solstice, although sometimes the beginning of a new cycle could be at a different time (for example, in 2009 the cycle begins on September 11, and in 2008 on April 9).

Every 52 years, the beginning of the two above-mentioned calendars coincided - this date was called the beginning of the calendar circle. The Maya believed that it was on this day that everything old died off, and the new was born. That is why at the end of each calendar circle the pyramids were re-lined with stone, adding a new layer (this subsequently provided invaluable help to archaeologists - they were able to accurately determine the age of these ancient observatories).

In addition, the industrious Maya demolished their old houses on this day and built others in their place, preferring to celebrate a new cycle in a new house. Presumably, temples and city walls were also updated on this day. And in general, apparently, on this day in all the Mayan villages, a grandiose drinking party was held.

Somewhat later, the priests of this mysterious Indian people developed a third calendar, called the Long Count or the Long Calendar. The beginning of this reckoning is dated for August 13 (15), 3114 BC. e. according to our calendar. As in the case of our "calculus", this calendar is not just for keeping track of days (that is, indicating which positions will correspond to which days), but for keeping records of events - remembering on which day this or that historical event occurred, how many years have passed between different events, etc. The long count was also used to record long genealogies of members of the aristocracy and to correlate the dates of events with the days of the Ritual and Solar cycles, which were more often used for everyday needs.

This calendar is divided into periods known as baktuns, each of which was 394 years long. The baktuns themselves were divided into smaller periods - tuns, which were approximately equal to our year (360 days). The beginning and end of each tun was tied to a specific astronomical event - solar eclipse, the fall of a meteorite, the parade of planets, etc. That is why it is possible to compare the Mayan chronology with the Gregorian - for this you just need to compare the dates of different calendars that tell about the same "heavenly" event.

It was this comparison that made it possible for Gerado Aldan to find out the inaccuracy of the recalculation. According to the scientist, the first compilers of the recalculation described one event that happened about a hundred years ago as the rise of Venus, although in reality it was a meteorite fall. If the author's assumption turns out to be correct, then the discrepancy between the Mayan calendar and Gregorian calendar is at least 60 days.

The end of the baktun was always accompanied by a holiday in honor of the deity Bolon Yokta. This Mayan heavenly patron acted as the god of war, and at his leisure he was engaged in the creation of new worlds (apparently, in order to somehow correct the consequences of his destructive activity). Perhaps that is why some publicists have put forward the idea that in 2012 the world expects big war, during which the world will be destroyed and then recreated again, despite the fact that none of the Mayan chronicles says that such a disgrace has already happened during the end of previous baktuns.

In addition, the authors of various popular science articles pointed out that the end of the world is also mentioned in the ancient sacred Mayan book “Chilam Balam”. It says that in December 2010 old world will be destroyed and civilization will disappear. However, not so long ago, the Mexican scientist Alfonso Morales found out that only ... wrong translation and inaccurate binding to the date were to blame for such a prophecy.

The original text in the book reads: "the world of hatred and violence will come to an end and ... humanity will have to make a choice between complete disappearance as a reasonable (being) that threatens to destroy everything, or follow the path of harmonious coexistence with the outside world." Agree, such a prophecy does not at all mean an apocalypse on a planetary scale, it is most likely about some kind of reassessment of values.

In addition, Morales proved that what is written refers not to the end of any particular cycle of the Long Count, but to the end of each baktun. It turns out that the authors of the book called on their people to spiritual renewal every 394 years (that is, to meet each new cycle with a pure soul), and did not frighten them with the apocalypse.

The scientist also established that the Mayan Long Count does not end at all with the completion of the current baktun. In fact, on the stone slab, where the Long Calendar is detailed, there was another fragment of text and, possibly, more than one. Just part of the plate was damaged, and the inscriptions were not preserved. But they certainly were, the scientist believes, since characteristic marks remained on the damaged surface.

Print version Font Send to a friend Finally, Apolinario Chile Pixtun, one of the elders of the descendants of the Mayan people who now live in Guatemala, has already made an official statement several times, in which he refuted the hypothesis that the end of the world will definitely happen on December 21, 2010. According to him, “the predictions of the ancient Mayans do not speak of the end of the world at all, but of 2012 as a kind of “anniversary of creation.” This is a "special creation anniversary" that is spiritual in nature. The Maya never said that the world was coming to an end, that something bad was about to happen. They simply celebrated 2012 as an anniversary year, the year of the end of the 13th baktun, since the number 13 was sacred to the Maya. The 2012 apocalyptic explanation is not from the Maya, it comes from a Christian worldview."

Piktun also says that his tribesmen are going to celebrate this day well: "... we will hold ceremonies, feasts and sacrifices." That is, while the rest of humanity, trembling with fear, is slowly preparing for the apocalypse, the Mayans are planning a grand binge with songs, dances and other necessary attributes of the holiday. Isn't such a fact the best proof that the ancient priests did not predict the end of the world at all, but something much more pleasant?

Released in December last year, Mel Gibson's blockbuster "Apocalypse" about the mysterious Mayan civilization has generated an unprecedented interest in its secret knowledge. And, accordingly, to the legendary calendar.

The heat was immediately added by publishers who released several books at once with frightening titles: “2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl”, “Apocalypse 2012: Scientific research end of civilization”, “Revolution 2012: Preparation”. People are naturally frightened - they are waiting for something terrible. For example, the end of the world, they say, the Mayans foresaw it and therefore completed their calendar on a specific date.

In fact, it is not the calendar that ends, but the so-called Great Cycle. Or the “Fifth Sun” in Mayan terminology, lasting 5126 years. The last day of this cycle is December 21, 2012. Then the next one will start. But this also raises concerns.

What Scientists Predict

According to scientists, the "Fifth Sun" began on August 13, 3113 BC. Why exactly then, with what event it was connected, no one knows. As well as it is not known where the ancient Mayans got their sophisticated number system for the passage of time and dividing it into cycles. Nevertheless, modern people believe that there was a meaning. And they are prophesying. Cataclysms are predicted that will mark the beginning of the next Great cycle of the Mayan calendar - the "Sixth Age of Creation", or the "Sixth Sun".

Joseph LAWRENCE, Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Study of the End of Civilization: "The solar system will die in an 'eclipse' in the Central Milky Way. Or it will deviate from its axis and begin a chaotic movement across the expanses of space.

Book "2012: Return of Quetzalcoatl": "Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and huge tidal waves will destroy half the planet."

Andrew SMITH, The 2012 Revolution: The Preparation: Restoring the true balance between the divine feminine and masculine.

Alexander FILATOV, designer of the Federal Nuclear Center, Sarov: “A certain planet will pass close to the Earth, which will cause a global flood, pole shift, climate change.”

Peter JAMES and Nick THORPE, University of California: "Earth will collide with an asteroid."

Opinions of an astronomer and mathematician

Valentin ESIPOV, head of the department of radio astronomy at the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute: “Any calendar is simple: it takes into account the movement of the planets around the Sun. And the more accurate the observations of cosmic bodies, the more accurate the reckoning. We now have the most accurate calendar. And the ancient Indian tribes did not know much. In addition, we monitor all comets and asteroids that may pass us in the next 10 years. And with all responsibility I declare: nothing threatens the Earth.

Vladimir PAKHOMOV, mathematician, physicist, former researcher at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, author of the book “Message to the Unborn”: “The Maya calendar became known due to the fact that they had a custom to put steles in all settlements - stone pillars on which important records were made events with dates. Descriptions of their Mayan calendar were not left to us. That is, maybe there was such a description, but tens of thousands of Mayan handwritten books were burned by Catholic monks. Only stone steles have been preserved. Therefore, one can only make various assumptions about their calendar system. For example, the myth about the high accuracy of the Mayan calendar is unfounded. When they indicate accuracy, writing down the number of days in a year with an accuracy of ten decimal places, do not believe it. The calendar is not a chronometer. The smallest value in any calendar is one day. And to measure smaller quantities of time, watches and stopwatches are used.

Opinions of an astronaut, astrologer and skeptic

Cosmonaut Georgy GRECHKO: “I think the Mayan calendar ends later: December 23, 2013. After all, the year of reference is still unknown: maybe they started from 0, and not from one. And then, to create a calendar, you need at least a primitive telescope and an accurate clock. The Maya were a bloody civilization. They ripped out the hearts of living people during the sacrifice, and in the ball game the captain of the losing team was beheaded in front of the audience. I am amazed at this incompatibility of high intelligence and savagery of morals. And therefore I do not believe that they could create an accurate calendar. I think it was given to them by aliens. Consider it my fantasy, but I think that when the calendar ends in 2012 or 2013, they will come back to either give us a new calendar or send us another Flood. We, they say, are the 5th civilization, and they destroyed the previous 4 for bad behavior - some with a flood, others with sulfuric fire from the sky.

And now we are behaving badly: we are accumulating weapons, spoiling nature. Even from space you can see what wounds we have inflicted on the Earth. And the aliens fly to us, as to a resort. And we - Homo sapiens - they "invented" to save the planet, as a housekeeper must maintain a house until the arrival of the owners from vacation. They came up with the Stone and Bronze Ages for us and, finally, they thought that the golden age was about to come, when they would fly back and give us new knowledge. But we ruined their "resort". And I think that if we continue to behave badly, then the aliens will arrange another disaster for us. I came up with such a horror story so that people would think about it, begin to love the Earth and each other, and not accumulate weapons.

Boris PYASIK, astrologer: “December 12, 2012 is the day when the configuration in the firmament is not easy. This is the last day of the lunar month, considered "satanic": there is a conjunction of Jupiter with the Black Moon, the planet of negative karma, and there is a tense planetary aspect of Pluto with Uranus. In addition, all this will occur at a time when Uranus changes the direction of its movement, which is fraught with strong destructive processes. I don’t know if the indicated day will become “the last day of Pompeii”, but, apparently, it will bring a lot of trouble.”

Mikhail Leitus, Chairman of the International Club of Skeptics: “In the 15th century, a formidable thought weighed on the minds of Russians about the imminent end of the world, which was expected after the 7th thousand years from the creation of the world. According to the Greek-Russian chronology, 7 thousand years ended just in 1492. Therefore, the liturgical Paschalia, indicating the months and dates of the celebration of Easter, was brought only up to 1492. When the fateful year passed safely, the Jews began to mock the Orthodox: “7 thousand years have ended, and your Paschal has passed, why doesn’t Christ appear contrary to your expectations? ..”

At the beginning of the 8th thousand years, in September 1492, the Council met in Moscow and decided to write Paschalia for the 8th thousand years. Now the end of the period can be conditionally considered a hundred years, or a thousand. And before the year 1000, and before the year 2000, there was mass hysteria associated with the end of the world. But he never came. I don't think we should be afraid of 2012 either."

6 naive questions about Maya

1. Where did the name come from? The word "Maya" exists in ancient Indian philosophy - it has 2 meanings: "the source of this world" and "illusory world". How it got from Asia to Central America is unknown. But the Maya appeared there in the 10th century BC and in just 500 years, on the site of an impenetrable rainforest, they created a civilization where astronomy, mathematics, architecture, sculpture, and painting were developed. And... mysteriously disappeared. By 830 AD, after 500 years of indefatigable activity, all their main centers were abandoned.

2. What did they discover? The Maya usually take credit for their calendar system. But they also calculated the cycles of eclipses, compiled tables of synchronization of the periods of circulation of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon. And for some reason, special attention was paid to the constellations Gemini and Pleiades.

3. How were the days counted? The Mayan calendar was based on the mythical starting date - August 13, 3113 BC. From it, by simply counting the number of days that have passed, the chronology was carried out. By the way, we also use the mythical date of the “birth of Christ” for our reckoning.

The Mayan calendar, despite its antiquity, is surprisingly accurate. According to modern calculations, the duration of the solar year is 365.2422 days. The Maya calculated a value of 365.2420 days. The difference is only 2 ten-thousandths. To compile such an accurate calendar, according to scientists, it would be necessary to observe and record the movements of the planets for about 10 thousand years.

4. What time is the calendar for? The Maya believed that the universe exists in great cycles. But for some reason, several calendar systems were used to count them:

1) 365-day year - haab - consisted of 18 months of 20 days.

2) 360-day year - tun.

3) 260-day year - Tzolkin (in translation - "count of days") - consisted of 13 months, 20 days each. It was called the sacred calendar. The week contained 13 days. In addition, there was another 9-day week. The Maya also came up with names for certain time periods: uinal - 20 days, tun - 360 days, katun - about 20 years, baktun - about 394 years - thirteen baktuns just end in 2012, piktun - 7885 years, kalabtun - 158,000 years , Kinchiltun - 3 million years, Alautun - 63 million years. It turns out that the calendar is adapted for measuring gigantic periods of time. As if the Maya were going to live forever...

5. What is a galactic ray? The Maya believed that during the Great Cycle - from 3113 BC to 2012 ours - human history is controlled by a certain galactic beam emanating from the "core of the Galaxy" - the Earth and the Sun pass through it. Pass in accordance with the "galactic seasons", which were described by the Maya in mathematical and symbolic form.

The galactic beam, according to Maya concepts, is similar to the beam of a lighthouse, which expands as it moves away from the source. Suppose a beam is gliding over a boat sailing far out in the ocean. In a certain period of time it will be illuminated. The same happens with the Earth crossing the galactic beam. The point of entry of the Earth into the beam corresponds to the "starting date" of the Maya - August 13, 3113 BC. The same date falls on December 21, 2012. Will he enter again?

6. What happened before the "Fifth Sun"? Mayan priests said that since the creation of the human race, 4 cycles, or the "Sun", have already passed. Changed 4 human races that died during the great cataclysms. And only a few people survived, telling about what happened. The "First Sun" lasted 4008 years and was destroyed by earthquakes. "Second Sun" lasted 4010 years, it was destroyed by hurricanes. The "Third Sun" lasted 4081 years and fell under a fiery rain from the craters of huge volcanoes. The “Fourth Sun” (5026 years) was destroyed by a flood.

Now according to the Mayan calendar, we live in the last katun of the Fifth Age of Creation, or the "Fifth Sun". It is also known as the "Sun of Movement". The Maya believed that at the end of the current 5126-year cycle, some movement of the Earth would occur.

According to sterhmedia.ru

There is an opinion that in December 2012, according to the Mayan calendar, the end of the world is expected. But where did the ancient Indians get such information from?

The Maya counted days from some mythical date, which corresponds to August 11 or 13, 3113 BC. This date was recorded by the Indians not as zero, the starting point of the beginnings, but as 13.0.0.0.0, that is, as the designation of thirteen four hundred years (baktuns).

Then the first day of the zero 400th anniversary began, then the second, the third… the seventh. But what happens if the 400th anniversary comes full circle and "returns" to the date 13.0.0.0.0? Will the world end then?
The first to link the catastrophe with 2012 was Michael Koe, an anthropology professor at Yale University and the author of several popular science studies of Mesoamerican civilizations. He wrote: “The religions of Mesoamerica are characterized by ideas of repeated cycles of creation and destruction. The Aztecs, for example, believed that the universe had already gone through four such cycles, and our era is the fifth cycle of creation, which is destined to perish due to earthquakes. Mayan ideas were similar. They also assumed the existence of time cycles of great duration. There is evidence that each of these cycles was 13 baktun in length, a little less than 5200 years, and that Armageddon must come on the last day of the thirteenth baktun. Thus, we can calculate that our world was created in 3113 BC, and the end of the world will be on December 24, 2011, when the end of the next great cycle will come according to the long count calendar.”
Subsequently, the scientist corrected December 24, 2011 to December 23, 2012, because he forgot that in our calendar, unlike the Maya, there is no zero year. Perhaps this date would not have become famous - you never know in the world of ancient calendars and strange beliefs! - if José Argüelles, author of the book The Mayan Factor: A Non-Technological Path, had not named her after Michael Koh.
According to Argüelles, a cycle of 13 baktuns is the time the Earth is in the "ray of galactic synchronization". The time of entry into it is August 3113 BC, and the exit is scheduled for December 2012. On this day, “synchronization with the beyond” will take place, and “we will close not only the Great Cycle, but also the existence of homo sapiens. Rainbow human consciousness will rise from pole to pole, and we will all be transported to heaven.” Nevertheless, the apocalypse will not happen if people “rebuild” in time and stop destroying the planet.
Argüelles's book became popular. The world learned about the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar.

Apocalypse Scenarios

In 1998, independent researcher of Maya culture, programmer John Major Jenkins suggested that 12/21/12, the date of the end of the cycle, was not chosen by chance. On this day, a rare astronomical phenomenon, the so-called "galactic alignment", will occur. The location of the Sun at the time of the winter solstice will coincide with the center of the galaxy. On that day, Jenkins wrote, "the world will change."
Scientists do not see anything unusual or sinister in the "galactic alignment". Nevertheless, fears arose that it could cause solar storms that would heat the Earth so much that its crust would melt and the continents would begin to move relative to each other. There is also an opinion that the poles will change places, and this can also cause shifts of the continents.
This is just one version of the end of the world. According to another, in 2012 we are waiting for a collision with the planet Nibiru.
Scientists are skeptical about these scenarios. But still, what did the Maya themselves say about the year in which we now live? Are there any prophecies?
Surprisingly, yes.

Prophecy from Tortuguero

In 1996, the famous Maya writing specialist David Stewart and his colleague Stephen Houston discovered an inscription on a stele in the ancient city of Tortuguero. When deciphered, the text turned out to be something like this: “The thirteenth four hundredth anniversary will end on the day of 4 Ahab on the 3rd day of the month Kankin. On that day, Bolon-Yokte, the god of change, will descend to (from or from) Chernaya? .. and do? .. "
This obscure text is the famous Mayan prophecy about the end of the world.
The entry ends at the most interesting point. What, one wonders, can we learn about the upcoming events of the current year on the basis of such meager data?
The advent of Bolon-Yokte, a god with a rather nasty character, is expected. There is a legend that at the dawn of our era, this celestial was a participant in the battle of the gods. On the first day of the new age, the inhabitants of heaven were attacked. One of their enemies was Bolon Yokte. His "colleagues" Chaak and Chak-Chel staged a flood. This scene is captured in one of the four Maya handwritten books that have survived to this day - the Dresden Hieroglyphic Codex. But the date of the catastrophic event has unfortunately been corrupted.
The Ukrainian researcher of the Mayan culture V. Talakh believes that the flooding of the Earth was considered by the ancients as a long-term state of the Universe, and the “day of creation” as the moment of its restoration.
Perhaps, in December 2012, we are waiting for not destruction, but stabilization? Bolon Yokte is the god of change, and change doesn't always mean the worst. There is another point of view. According to S. Houston, one of the scientists who found an inscription on a stele in the ancient city of Tortuguero, Bolon-Yokte is not the name of a god at all, but the designation of a collection of “many gods”. Thus, on December 21 (or 23) a whole host of celestials will come to us.
And S. Houston's colleague D. Stewart bluntly stated that the prophecy, about which in question, conditional and doubtful, because some of the hieroglyphs of the text are damaged. Maybe there are no ominous predictions at all?
The most interesting thing is that the Mayan calendar begins before 3113 BC. and does not end in 2012. There are records of events before and after the great cycle.
Moreover, the Maya did not pay any special attention to the date of the “beginning of the baktun”. In the ancient Maya town of Palenque, in the local Temple of the Inscriptions, a text was discovered in which it is said in passing that the thirteenth four hundredth anniversary has ended, and then follows a story about the exploits of the gods.
It is possible that December 21, 2012 will pass unnoticed for us as well.

Mayan Aztec variant

In Mesoamerica, as Michael Koh writes, there was indeed a concept of the cycles of creation and destruction. True, to a greater extent it is characteristic of the Aztecs. From them comes the myth of the suns, which ended their existence either with fiery rains or with floods. The current, fifth era is waiting for death from an earthquake, but the exact date of the disaster is not known.
Cataclysms were predicted by the Aztecs after every 52 years. To appease the gods and prolong the existence of the world, the ancient people brought them human sacrifices.
Tales of catastrophes are also found in the sacred book of the Guatemalan Maya Quiché, Popol Vuh. It says that people were created several times. The first, made of clay, were unsuccessful: they could not stand, move, were blind. The gods had to destroy them and create new people, this time from wood. Such "products" did not have a heart, soul and memory, they did not honor their creators. In addition, they were evil, offended animals and had a passion for destruction. Angry at their creations, the gods made a flood for them. Few survived the catastrophe, and even those turned ... into monkeys. Only the latest "version" of people - from corn - turned out to be without flaws.
Some of the researchers believe that the Maya of the era of the conquistadors could have similar myths, but so far there is no evidence for this. Others argue that the "classic" Maya should not be judged by the texts of the colonial era. They were written down by pupils of monastic schools in Latin, and therefore, under the influence of new ideas, they could be distorted.
The preachers of the apocalypse mixed the Aztecs and the Maya. One of the books about 2012 is called The Return of Quetzalcoatl, although that is the name of the god of the ancient Mexicans. The so-called Stone of the Sun (Spanish: Piedra del Sol), a monolithic basalt disk with a symbolic image of the Aztec cosmogony and the solar cult, is also mistaken for the Aztec calendar. From this confusion, the myth of the ominous prophecy of the Maya was born. And for the Maya themselves, the completion of thirteen baktuns was most likely just a reason for celebration.

End of the world - conquest?

Perhaps the Maya have already experienced their end of the world. August 11, 3113 BC - generally accepted, but not the only date for the beginning of the Great Cycle. According to the chronology of the Mayan culture researcher Joseph Herbert Spinden, adopted at the beginning of the 20th century, the Mayan civilization is 256 years older. Therefore, the date of the end of the world falls on ... 1756. And if you follow a different correlation, then thirteen baktuns ended in 1493 ...
At the end of the tenth century, the Maya switched to counting time in twenty years. For each they made their own prediction. The prophecies for the twenty years of which 1992-2012 consisted, and much earlier - 1480-1500, coincide: “... hematemesis will come. Kukulkan will come a second time. Word of God. Itza will come."
1480-1500 - the time of the discovery of America. Maybe the Mayans were indeed prophets and predicted the coming of the conquistadors?