The BBC attempts to debunk the “2012 is the end of the world” notion that the Mayans are supposed to have predicted.
The date marks the end of one of the periods of roughly 400 years into which the Mayan calendar is divided.
Mexico’s National Institute for Anthropological History has also tried to counter speculation that the Maya predicted a catastrophic event for 2012.
Only two out of 15,000 registered Mayan texts mention the date 2012, according to the Institute, and no Mayan text predicts the end of the world.
“There is no prophecy for 2012. It is a marketing fallacy,” Erik Velasquez, etchings specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told Reuters.
