About the Maya Calendar

The Maya had several calendars: one, known as the tsolkin, was made up of 260 days. Another, referred to as the "Long Count" calendar, acted as a reference for historical events in Maya society. Because of the organization of the Long Count calendar, the dates can be linked to our Western calendar, allowing historians to measure the accuracy of the Maya's method.

The End of the Calendar Cycle

The Maya Long Count calendar comes to the end of its current 5,126 year cycle on December 21, 2012. There is no record telling us exactly what the ancient Maya expected to happen when this cycle ends and the next begins, but some investigators believe this ancient civilization was foretelling the end of the world as we know it.

The Dresden Codex

Could the text of the Dresden Codex ? one of many preserved Maya tomes ? predict a cataclysmic end to everything in 2012? While some believe the Maya were predicting a massive flood, there are numerous theories: everything from raging storms, to environmental collapse, to a violent shift in the Earth's poles. Still, anthropologists generally see the images in the Codex as simply a part of the wider Maya cosmology.