Mayans Mark End of One Calendar With the Start of a New Era - Central Coast News KION/KCBA

Tikan, Guatemala,- One Mayan calendar ended Friday and the world is still here. But the Mayans aren't done yet as they herald a new era on the same day the world was supposed to end. Fire and candles greeted the dawn as small crowds looked on.  

At sunrise on Friday, an era closed in the Maya Long Count calendar, an event that has been likened by different groups to the end of days, the start of a new, more spiritual age or a good reason to visit at old Maya temples across Mexico and Central America. 

Once at the heart of a civilization in its own right, the ancient city of Tikal is now a top tourist site. 

In the 1960s, a leading U.S. scholar said the end of the Maya's 13th bak'tun - an epoch lasting some 400 years - could signify an "Armageddon" - a theory debunked by experts. 

Maya scholars and astronomers have dismissed the idea the world is on the brink of destruction but mystics and spiritual thrill-seekers have flocked to feed off Tikal's energy.  

Discovered in 1848 when locals unearthed human skulls whose teeth were studded with jade jewels, Tikal draws tourists from around the globe.  

Extending for 222 square miles through Guatemala's sweltering north, Tikal is one of the largest pre-Columbian Maya sites.