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Preparing for the end of the world The Mayan “long count” calendar completed its 5,125-year cycle Friday, but some people believed that the Dec. 21 event would coincide with a global catastrophe.
Dec. 21, 2012
People are silhouetted as the sun rises above the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge, in southern England, as access to the site is given to druids, New Age followers and other members of the public on the winter solstice. According to legend, the ancient Mayan long-count calendar that ended at midnight Thursday was to usher in the end of the world. That didn't happen. "This is not the end of the world. This is the beginning of the new world," Star Johnsen-Moser, an American seer, said across the globe at a gathering of hundreds of spiritualists at a convention center in the Yucatan city of Merida, an hour and a half from the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza.
Matt Dunham
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AP
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Dec. 20, 2012
Indians gather for a ceremony at the Iximche archeological site in Tecpan, Guatemala. Although the Mayan calendar cycle prompted a wave of doomsday speculation across the globe, few in the Mayan heartland believed the world would end.
Moises Castillo
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AP
Dec. 21, 2012
People gather around a sacred fire at the Mayan archeological site of Iximche in Tecpan, Guatemala, during a ceremony marking the new period in the Mayan calendar.
Moises Castillo
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AP
Dec. 21, 2012
Mayan shamans take part in a ceremony celebrating the end of the Mayan cycle known as Bak'tun 13 and the start of the Mayan new age at the Tikal archaeological site north of Guatemala City.
Johan Ordonez
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AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 21, 2012
People gather in front of the Kukulkan temple in Chichen Itza, Mexico. Ceremonial fires burned and conches sounded off as dawn broke over the steps of the main pyramid at the Mayan ruins, making what many believe is the conclusion of the 5,125-year cycle in the Mayan calendar.
Israel Leal
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AP
Dec. 21, 2012
People flock to the Serbia’s Mount Rtanj, about 140 miles southeast of Belgrade. Several people thought the mountain may have had the power to save them from an apocalypse.
Darko Vojinovic
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AP
Dec. 21, 2012
People dressed as aliens pose for the camera in Bugarach, France, after the time passed 11:11 a.m., when some said the Mayan apocalypse would occur. Legend said an ancient Mayan calendar claimed Dec. 21 would be the end of the world, and some thought that a mountain near Burgarach was an alien landing pad from where a few chosen ones would be spirited to the safety of outer space.
Patrick Aventurier
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Getty Images
Dec. 21, 2012
People dressed as aliens pose for the camera in Bugarach, France.
Patrick Aventurier
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Getty Images
Dec. 20, 2012
French police patrols around the village of Bugarach as they block access to the peak of Bugarach in southern France. Bugarach is a small village on the French side of the Pyrenees. Theories circulating on the Internet identify the 1,230-meter mountain as an alien landing pad from where a few chosen ones will be spirited to the safety of outer space Friday.
Guillaume Horcajuelo
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European Pressphoto Agency
Dec. 20, 2012
A pyramid-shaped object lies in a field in Bugarath, France. Miviludes, the French government's dedicated sect watchdog, is investigating the likelihood of apocalyptic sect activity or ritualized suicides due to the belief that an ancient Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, and Burgarach is the only place on Earth that will be saved from the expected apocalypse.
Patrick Aventurier
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Getty Images
Dec. 20, 2012
Speleologists of the National Gendarmerie, a French paramilitary unit with civilian duties, inspect caves in Bugarath, France.
Patrick Aventurier
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Getty Images
Dec. 20, 2012
An employee walks through the bunker of Fort de Schoenenbourg in Hunspach, France. The concrete fort offers a secure location for everyone fearing the end of the world.
Uwe Anspach
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European Pressphoto Agency
Dec. 20, 2012
Mayans kneel in front of a temple at Tikal archaeological site about 350 miles north of Guatemala City. Ceremonies will be held here to celebrate the end of the Mayan cycle known as Bak'tun 13 and the start of the new Mayan era on Friday.
Hector Retamal
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AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 20, 2012
The Mayan temple at the Tikal archaeological site.
Johan Ordonez
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AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 20, 2012
People shop at a gift stall in Sirince, Turkey. Thousands of foreign and local tourists are expected to flock to Sirince, a small village near the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, which is believed to be one of the few places on Earth that will survive the end of the world because the Virgin Mary is said to have risen to heaven from there.
Osman Orsal
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Reuters
Dec. 20, 2012
A tourist looks at products on sale on the streets of Sirince, Turkey.
Bulent Kilic
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AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 20, 2012
An activist of the Ukrainian Internet Party, wearing a Stormtrooper outfit from the Star Wars saga, distributes toilet paper on Independence Square in Kiev. The party activists, who traditionally wear Star Wars costumes during their actions, distributed canned foods, matches, condoms, toilet paper, soap, light bulbs and "tickets" for their spacecraft evacuation to passersby to supposedly save Ukrainians from the end of the world.
Sergei Supinsky
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AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 19, 2012
Pieter van der Meer, left, and a friend uncover his lifeboat in his garden in Kootwijkerbroek, the Netherlands. Van der Meer says using the boat, he can help save 35 people during a global apocalypse.
Robin Van Lonkhuijsen
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AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 19, 2012
Pieter van der Meer sits in his lifeboat in his garden.
Robin Van Lonkhuijsen
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European Pressphoto Agency
Dec. 20, 2012
People walk past a model meant to represent a UFO hanging outside a window in Bugarach, France.
Marko Drobnjakovic
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AP
Dec. 20, 2012
People camp in Bugarath, France.
Patrick Aventurier
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Getty Images
Dec. 20, 2012
A man shows a Before Doomsday application on his phone, in a cafe in Belgrade, Serbia.
Darko Vojinovic
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AP
Dec. 20, 2012
A woman views a depiction of the Mayan calendar at the planetarium of the Mini World theme park in Lichtenstein, Germany.
Hendrik Schmidt
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European Pressphoto Agency
Nov. 21, 2012
A Mayan shaman performs a ritual at the Quirigua archaeological site 130 miles north of Guatemala City. Ceremonies will be held here to celebrate the end of the Mayan cycle.
Johan Ordonez
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AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 6, 2012
People raise their hands during a ceremony by Mayan sages in Bacuranao, Cuba. From Russia to California, thousands are preparing for the day when many believe a 5,125-year cycle known as the “long count” in the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to an end. In Mexico's Mayan heartland, nobody is preparing for the end of the world; instead, they're bracing for a tsunami of spiritual visitors. Jose Manrique Esquivel, a descendent of the Maya, said his community in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula sees the date as a celebration of their survival despite centuries of genocide and oppression. He blamed profiteers looking to scam the gullible for stoking doomsday fears.
Ramon Espinosa
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AP
Dec. 6, 2012
Cubans participate in a Mayan ritual at Bacuranao beach in eastern Havana. Mayan leaders are in Cuba conducting conferences and ceremonies to celebrate the beginning of a new calendar era.
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AFP/Getty Images
Nov. 8, 2012
A visitor looks at the 12th-century Codex Dresdensis, one of four historic Mayan manuscripts that exist in the world, at the Saxon State Library in Dresden, Germany. The documents enumerate the Mayan calendar, which will complete its 13th cycle Dec. 21, and many people across the globe are interpreting the calendar to mean impending global devastation and the birth of a new order are near.
Joern Haufe
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Getty Images
Nov. 24, 2012
Lu Zhenghai, right, walks near his ark-like vessel in China's northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Lu is one of at least two men in China predicting a world-ending flood Dec. 21, the conclusion of the 5,125-year Mayan "long count" calendar. Zhenghai has spent his life savings building the 70-by-50-foot vessel powered by three diesel engines, according to state media.
Chen Jiansheng
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AP
Dec. 3, 2012
A chef arranges "end of the world" truffles made by chef Jose Ramon Castillo in Mexico City. The truffles are made with mango and chillis and are macerated in mezcal, a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the native Mexican maguey plant. Pre-Hispanic cultures such as the Maya used cocoa to make chocolate.
Omar Torres
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AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 14, 2012
A teacher talks to her pupils about the Mayas at the Museum of National Identity in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The beginning of a new Mayan era Dec. 21 will be marked with celebrations throughout southern Mexico and Central America. Honduras is one of five countries preparing to observe the date, which marks the end of an era more than 5,000 years long, according to the Mayan "long count" calendar, which began in 3114 B.C.
Orlando Sierra
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AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 11, 2012
A statue in Cisternino, in the southern Italian region of Puglia. Cisternino is one of the few places on Earth that some people believe will be spared when the world ends when a Mayan calendar era ends Dec. 21.
AFP
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AFP/Getty Images
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Section:/national/on-faith
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