mromero - 1:13 am on Dec 17, 2012 (gmt 0)

The Maya never predicted the end of the world. The end of the 13th Baktun signals the start of the 14th Baktun, a renewal or new cycle in the calendar.

You can fault the various tourists boards for fomenting the end of the world myth overseas to lure in preppers and doomsday fans and the curious.

And the Maya never disappeared - they are very much alive and well today - but sadly mostly landless and a suppressed people even where they are the major population group.