Hippies head for Noah’s Ark: Queue here for rescue aboard alien spaceship   

 A mountain looming over a French commune with a population of just 200 is being touted as a modern Noah's Ark when doomsday arrives – supposedly less than nine months from now.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pic_de_Bugarach

A rapidly increasing stream of New Age believers – or esoterics, as locals call them – have descended in their camper van-loads on the usually picturesque and tranquil Pyrenean village of Bugarach. They believe that when apocalypse strikes on 21 December this year, the aliens waiting in their spacecraft inside Pic de Bugarach will save all the humans near by and beam them off to the next age.  

As the cataclysmic date – which, according to eschatological beliefs and predicted astrological alignments, concludes a 5,125-year cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar – nears, the goings-on around the peak have become more bizarre and ritualistic. 

For decades, there has been a belief that Pic de Bugarach, which, at 1,230 metres, is the highest in the Corbières mountain range, possesses an eery power. Often called the "upside-down mountain" – geologists think that it exploded after its formation and the top landed the wrong way up – it is thought to have inspired Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Since the 1960s, it has attracted New Agers, who insist that it emits special magnetic waves. 

Further, rumours persist that the country's late president François Mitterrand was transported by helicopter on to the peak, while the Nazis, and, later, Israel's Mossad, performed mysterious digs there. Now the nearby village is awash with New Agers, who have boosted the local economy, though their naked group climbs up to the peak have raised concerns as well as eyebrows. Among other oddities, some hikers have been spotted scaling the mountain carrying a ball with a golden ring, strung together by a single thread.  

A grizzled man wearing a white linen smock, who calls himself Jean, set up a yurt in the forest a couple of years ago to prepare for the earth's demise. "The apocalypse we believe in is the end of a certain world and the beginning of another," he offers. "A new spiritual world. The year 2012 is the end of a cycle of suffering. Bugarach is one of the major chakras of the earth, a place devoted to welcoming the energies of tomorrow." 

Upwards of 100,000 people are thought to be planning a trip to the mountain, 30 miles west of Perpignan, in time for 21 December, and opportunistic entrepreneurs are shamelessly cashing in on the phenomenon. While American travel agents have been offering special, one-way deals to witness the end of the world, a neighbouring village, Saint-Paul de Fenouillet, has produced a wine to celebrate the occasion.  

Jean-Pierre Delord, the perplexed mayor of Bugarach, has flagged up the situation to the French authorities, requesting they scramble the army to the tiny village for fear of a mass suicide. It has also caught the attention of France's sect watchdog, Miviludes. 

A genial sexagenarian, Mr Delord says: "We've seen a huge rise in visitors. Already this year more than 20,000 people have climbed right to the top, and last year we had 10,000 hikers, which was a significant rise on the previous 12 months. They think Pic de Bugarach is 'un garage à ovnis' [an alien garage]. The villagers are exasperated: the exaggerated importance of something which they see as completely removed from reality is bewildering. After 21 December, this will surely return to normal." 

Masking his fears of what might happen on 21 December, Mr Delord jokes that he will throw a party and supply vin chaud and cheese. "I'm sure we'll have a little fete to celebrate that we're still alive," he smiles. "I suppose it's up to each of us to find our own way." 


When I was first sent this article, I was like "eh, nother 2012 story." I looked at it, read through it, did a preliminary search. Nothing kicked me, so the article got put aside like so many did at that time. That was over 3 months ago,,,I found myself returning to the article and digging a bit more, each time. Me thinks that the individual who sent me the article knew that would happen. Who would have thunk that one little mountain, in the middle of nowhereville Fance, would have such an intriguing backstory wrapped in intrigue and esoterica.  

This story is so full of interesting facets tis making my earthly head spin,,,The list I have in front of me, items to possibly explore, includes geology, eschatology, astrological alignment. Ark of the Convanent, abductions, Massad and Nazis. The list goes on and on. For the sake of brevity I have attempted categorized the intrigue into groups--speculation and end-times, legend/myths, esoterica and biblical. Not all of which I will be able to include in the report but will incldue in my show notes. 


http://lebibliothecaire.blogspot.com/2012/03/expo-bugarach.html 

 
UPSIDE-DOWN MOUNTAIN
An "upside-down" mountain?? OK I'll bite on that one,,,but not too hard. Both this article and one published via Yahoo! News use this term in describing the geology of the mountain. Only problem they are incorrect in doing so as Steven Schimmrich Hudson Valley Geologist so aptly points out:
Even though I'm completely unfamiliar with the geology of Pic de Bugarach, I do know that mountains don't erupt and flip upside down. Especially one that looks like it's made of limestone and has caves (that's where the aliens hide).  
Let's ignore the clumsy prose of the author of the Yahoo! News article and ask "How come rocks collected from the peak of Pic de Bugarach are older than than rocks collected at the base?" Well, to a geologist, that would be a classic indicator of a thrust fault - a place where horizontal compression of the crust, during mountain building, thrust a sheet of rock up and over younger strata. Happens all the time and is seen in mountain belts (modern and ancient) all over the world (even, on a small scale, here in the Hudson Valley).  
So, I did some "research" (a Google search) and quickly learned that I was, in fact, correct. Pic de Bugarach is a klippe - the erosional remnant of a thrust nappe formed when the Alpine Orogeny formed the Pyrenees. Jurassic limestones are thrust over younger Cretaceous rocks in the area.  
This is very similar to a place I am a bit more familiar with, Chief Mountain in Montana. Chief Mountain is also the erosional remnant (klippe) of a thrust sheet.  
Anyway, it's pretty cool geology but it's not particularly mysterious. Pictures and descriptions of these features are seen in every single undergraduate textbook which discuss geologic structures and tectonics.  
So, just because you read it in a "news" article, doesn't mean it's true, boys and girls. Mountains don't just leap in the air and flip over. And aliens don't live in caves under a mountain in France.
So it is not an ancient volcano that blew it's top!! Dang, that sounded way kewler than a thrust fault. 


Now here is where things get a we bit sticky,,,we have end-time prophecy wrapped around the Mayan Long Count calender. Stuffed inside is an alleged astrological alignment. As a topping to that we have new archeological findings; Unprecedented Maya Mural Found, Contradicts 2012 "Doomsday" Myth. I'm not sure yet if that is the whipped cream or the cherry. Hopefully no sprinkles will be added, if this gets any more convoluted I may turn into Linda Blair!! 


MAYAN LONG COUNT CALENDAR 
So, 3,000 years ago, the Mayan developed around 15 to 20 calendars, all with a slightly different purpose: the Tzolk'in to calculate crop cultivation, the Haab followed the cycles of the sun and the Long Count ticked off the harrowing last days of,,,good question?? (Personally I think they ran out of room on the stone they were working on and then they disappeared as a culture to boot. And yes I AM joking!!) 



http://www.dailyfunnystuff.net/2012-a-comic-perspective-on-the-mayan-calendars-prediction-of-devastation  



 http://www.anthroblogs.org/nomadicthoughts/archives/maya_archaeology/ 
 

The Long Count calculates a period of time known as the Great Cycle, which is a about 5,125.36 years. Scholars paired up the dates of the Long Count with Gregorian calendars and found that the current Great Cycle began August 13, 3114 B.C, and ends on December 21st, 2012.[1] 

Very simple really, for the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle. According to scholars, there is nothing in the Maya, Aztec or ancient Mesoamerican writings to suggest that they prophesied a sudden or major change of any sort in 2012. If anything is hinted at by the new cycle, a change in human consciousness.[1] 

So how did the Mayan calendar become associated with eschatology?? 

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue,,,actually it was 1502, while good ole Chris Columbus was compiling Libro de las profecias; during that voyage he heard about the Maya. Simply put, Columbus believed that his discovery of "most distant" lands (and, by extension, the Maya themselves) was prophesied and would bring about the Apocalypse. End-times fears were widespread during the early years of the Spanish Conquest as the result of popular astrological predictions in Europe of a second Great Flood for the year 1524.[1,2] 

Fast foreward to the 1990's,,, John Major Jenkins adds to this theory that the date coincides with a winter solstice during which the Sun will align with the center of the Milky Way galaxy. 


http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012-alignment.html
Over 2,000 years ago the early Maya formulated a profound galactic cosmology. They saw that the sun, on the winter solstice, was slowly moving toward the heart of the galaxy. Naturally enough, with their uncorrupted intelligence intact, they suspected that the world would go through a transformation when the solar and the galactic planes aligned. They devised their Long Count calendar to target when the cosmic alignment would maximize, and that time is AD 2012. We are lucky that the brilliant skywatchers who devised the 2012 calendar left carved monuments for us to decode, and that they have survived the decay of centuries, so that we can know exactly what they prophesied and believed about 2012.[3]

http://alignment2012.com/whatisGA.htm 

BUT,,, 

From my reading on the subject, most scholars do not believe that the Mayan were even aware of procession. (This whole "galactic alignment" concept is based on an idea of the precession of the equinoxes. Precession is caused by the earth wobbling very slowly on its axis shifting the position of the equinoxes and solstices one degree every 71.5 years. Because the sun is one-half of a degree wide, it will take the December solstice sun 36 years to precess through the Galactic equator.) Nor did it even appear that the Maya placed any importance on the solstices or euqinoxes. BUT, I still find it fascinating none-the-less and these "psuedoscientists" arent afraid to color outside the lines, but the science must fit the facts.[1] 

There are numerous other catostrophic/doomsday theories in regards to the Maya date of December 21st, 2012; too many to list in this episode. But one point I would like to make concerns the so called conspiracy that NASA and other government agencies here in the US and world wide are aware of the approach of Nibiru (aka Planet X). In my mind that would be one heck of a conspiracy when you take into account the millions of amateur star gazers out there.[1]

See Also:

Other Stories 
Thousands Flock To France To Prepare For Doomsday, Waiting For Spaceship  
 
French village of Bugarach spooked by doomsday cults  
 
Mayor of French village threatens to call in army to deal with influx of UFO hunters who believe nearby mountain is 'alien garage' 
 
Escape to Newage Mountain  

The Science of it all 
2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?  
 
2012: Shadow of the Dark Rift  

  
The Planet X Saga: The Scientific Arguments in a Nutshell  
The Great 2012 Doomsday Scare  
 
Maya
Mesoamerican Long Count calendar  

SOURCES:  
 
1] 2012 Phenomenon  

 2] Appendix III: Forty-Four End-of-the-World Prophecies——That Failed see: February 1, 1524 

 3] What the Maya Left Behind