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So, here's a brief lesson in how the Mayan calendar works. The smallest unit is the kin, which is a single day. After that is the uinal which is a period of 20 kin. 18 uinal equals one tun (18 * 20 kin, or 360 days) which is approximately one year. 20 tun make a katun, 20 katun make a baktun, and 20 baktun make a pictun.
Everything is in 20's because Mayans used a base-20 numbering system rather than base 10 like we're used to now. Apparently they included toes when counting :) .
So, December 20th 2012 is the last day of the 12th baktun. This is written as 12.19.19.17.19. The next day, December 21st 2012 is the first day of the 13th baktun, 13.0.0.0.0, or 1,872,000 kin from the beginning of their calendar (13 * 20 * 20 * 18 * 20)
So calculating out, the end of the 19th batkun, 19.19.19.17.19, will be on October 12, 4774 by our calendar, which is when the ancient Mayans believed the universe would be destroyed. The next day, October 13, 4774, 1.0.0.0.0.0, the ancient Mayans believed the universe will be reborn.
Now that the lesson is done, believe it or not, I don’t believe the Mayans really knew when the world will end. By my calculations it will happen either on April 30, 7576, or November 11, 23022. I’m not sure how many kin that is but both dates are far enough out I’m not going to stress about it. |
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So, I was out placing this new cache recently to commemorate what I’m calling the Mayan New Year. You do not need to walk on private property to get this cache. Depending on how you approach I did see a little bit of barbed wire that was disconnected and perpendicular to a fence so please be cautious. Rusty barbed wire is never fun.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.