Guatemala – Tourists who flocked to an ancient Mayan temple on December 21 to observe the end of days, join mankind in a new era of spiritual consciousness, or just to party have caused “irreparable” damage to the historic site.
A group of over 7,000, both tourists and locals, flocked to the Tikal archaeological site to celebrate the end of the Mayan cycle called the Bak’tun 13, reports RT.com . The ancient Mayan temple in Guatemala is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and we can only imagine how they felt about “Occupy Maya” turning the sacred structure into the site of a massive kegger.
Oh wait, we do know how they felt about that.
“Sadly, many tourists climbed Temple II and caused damage,” said Osvaldo Gomez, a technical adviser at the historic site. “We are fine with the celebration, but [the tourists] should be more aware because this is a World Heritage Site,” he concluded.
Gomez didn’t exactly say what was done to the site but noted that it is forbidden to climb the temple stairs and said that, whatever damage was done, it was “irreparable,” reports The Bangkok Post .
Temple II is about 38 meters (about 125 feet) high and faces the central Tikal plaza. It is one of the site’s best-known structures.
Friday, December 21 marked the end of the Mayan “Long Count” calendar, an era which lasted 5,200 years. There were a lot of different theories floating around as to what might happen when the calendar runs out, and a lot of fear that the world would finally come to an end .
Sadly, it seems in Guatemala, it was just another day of hard drinking and blatant disregard for historic sites.
