Bugarach

Mayan carvings at La Corona: The 1,300-year-old inscription is described as one of the most significant hieroglyphic finds in decades

Archaeologists working at the La Corona dig site in Guatemala have discovered a 1,300-year-old-year Maya text that provides only the second known reference to the so-called ‘end date’ of the Maya calendar.

Inscriptions on Mayan tablets found in temples such as Tortuguero refer to 'the end' - and many internet conspiracy theories have predicted our world will be swallowed by a black hole, hit by an asteroid or devoured by ancient gods.

Cults have gathered in the tiny French village called Bugarach where they hope to survive the apocalypse.

Hundreds of books have been published on the subject since the Seventies, predicting Earth's demise at the hands of a mysterious planet Nibiru, or a black hole.

'The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth,' says Nasa, 'These fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012.'

But many ethnic Mayans dismiss the apocalyptic predictions as largely a Western idea.

Rather than the end of time itself, the inscriptions refer to the start of a new era.

The 'apocalypse' refers to the end of a cycle of 5,125 years since the beginning of the Mayan Long Count calendar in 3113 B.C.