Doomsday Pyramid to Bring Positive Thinking in Mexico's Maya Riviera Evelyn Kanter - FoxNews.com
go to original July 10, 2012

The Pyramid of Positive Thinking, a structure that honors the Mayan Calendar. (Evelyn Kanter)

The Maya Riviera, the northwestern part of the Yucatan Peninsula, alongside the turquoise Caribbean Sea is home to some of the most-visited Maya cities, Tulum, Coba and Chichen Itza.  

So it's no wonder that this area is turning into one of the main destinations to celebrate "the end of the world." The ancient Maya calendar ends on December 21, 2012, the Winter Solstice.  It’s not the end of the world, really - as a some like to predict.  Archeologists now believe it is simply the end of one calendar cycle and the start of a new one.  Maya apocalypse or not, the debate and the headlines are good for tourism.  And I could see that first hand during recent trip.

One of the special attractions set up to celebrate the ending of the Maya calendar is a new pyramid that's being constructed for doomsday, and beyond.

Mexican artist Xavier de Maria y Campos hopes the new b’aktunoob, or Maya calendar cycle, ushers in a new era of positive thinking and appreciation of nature and the environment, two things the Maya believed in. That’s why he is building a giant pyramid out of 700,000 recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) water and soda bottles in Aldea Zama, between the ancient and modern cities of Tulum.

This Pyramid of Positive Thinking is to be completed on December 21, 2012, covered in jungle foliage and topped with a giant mirror that will reflect the sun's rays during the day and create an artificial light beam at night. Click for more here and here.

Visitors are invited to stuff a bottle with a little paper prayer or wish. Mine was that we use fewer plastic bottles. Visitors also can insert a wish contributed virtually via the pyramid’s website, a popular activity for school groups.

As the pile of bottles rises, the structure is planted with greenery. A gardener handed me a cutting, which I pushed into the webbing holding the pile of plastic in place. Eventually, this pyramid will look like just another hill covered with jungle growth, like the hundreds that dot the Yucatan, hiding Maya ruins which have not yet been excavated.

Tulum currently does not have a recycling program. Campos hopes for good cosmic karma from the positive thoughts inside the bottles, the act of getting so much plastic out of garbage dumps, and the eco-awareness his project is building.  It couldn’t hurt.

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