Pre-Columbian Central America was a fascinating place. This region was once ruled by the Mayan empire. The Maya were one of the most advanced prehistoric civilizations on the planet. Their religion focused a great deal around astronomy. In fact they are one of the few cultures that recognized the concept of a solar system.
If you’ve read any conspiracy theory literature recently it seems that everyone is jumping on the 2012 band wagon. According to those that just want you to buy their books the world will end on December 21st, 2012. They point out that the Maya predicted the end of civilization through their precise astronomical records.
This is a bit misleading. The Mayan’s did indeed have a sophisticated calendar system that broke time up into very unique intervals that can best be visualized as cogs in a wheel. The largest of the wheels is informally known as the long count calendar. The long count calendar cycles every 5126 years through a new age. 2012 is simply the end of a revolution of that wheel and the start of a new age.
One area that is getting mixed up with the whole Mayan calendar is the 11 year sun spot cycle. Conspiracy theorists are pointing to the fact that we will be at a solar maximum in the year 2012. Since these 2 events overlap then of course the earth must be destroyed by an erupting sun spot.
Other wilder theories state that an unknown planet will reenter the solar system and cause untold havoc to life on earth.
Neither of these two theories have anything to do with the Mayan calendar.
So whatever your belief system it’s always better to be informed than ignorant. A little research into Mayan culture will show that this once great society was truly ahead of it’s time. It developed a revolutionary and accurate calendar system that has proven to be extremely accurate.
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