'Yes, we're alive' - PHOTOS

The final countdown to the end of the world is on... and good news for believers, you still have time for one last fry-up. The exact timing of today's cataclysm has been muddled, but according to some self-appointed Mayan experts, it will occur later this morning.

Doomsday hour has already passed in some countries - with Australia one of the first countries to see the sun rise on what is supposed to be the end of days, Tourism Australia's Facebook page was bombarded with posts asking if anyone survived Down Under.

'Yes, we're alive,' the organisation responded to worried users. Technically, however, the world isn't set to end until 10.12pm Australian eastern daylight time tonight.

Scientists in Taiwan also had their tongues firmly in cheek, setting up a two-story replica of a Mayan pyramid and planting an electronic countdown timer on top, drawing crowds at the National Museum of Natural Science.

According to legend, the ancient Mayans' long-count calendar ends at midnight Thursday, ushering in the end of the world. But it didn't happen.

As the appointed time came and went in several parts of the world, there was no sign of the apocalypse.

'This is not the end of the world. This is the beginning of the new world,' Star Johnsen-Moser, an American seer, said at a gathering of hundreds of spiritualists at a convention centre in Mexico's Yucatan city of Merida, an hour and a half from the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza.

'It is most important that we hold a positive, beautiful reality for ourselves and our planet. ... Fear is out of place.

'As the appointed time came and went in several parts of the world, there was no sign of the apocalypse.

Indeed, the social network Imgur posted photos of clocks turning midnight in the Asia-Pacific region with messages such as: 'The world has not ended. Sincerely, New Zealand.'

Five 'hippies' including one brandishing a Taser gun were turned back by French police as they tried to enter a mountain village tipped to avoid the end of the world today.

Bugarach, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, is said to contain a mystical UFO garage which will ferry people off planet earth as the Mayan Calendar runs out.

Doomsday followers are convinced here will be no December 22nd for anyone except for those who make it to the hamlet, which has a population of 189 people.

It had swelled to around three times that amount today, with some 200 journalists joining mainly 'New Age types'.

But the 100 odd police who have set up road blocks said no-one else would be allowed up until after Christmas.

'We've stopped five hippies so far, including one who was carrying a Taser,' said a local police spokesman, adding: 'All agreed to turn back from trying to get to the village, which is overcrowded enough as it is.

'There are a few more New Age types around - the kind you get at illegal raves - but they're not causing any problems.'

So where did it all begin? Ancient Mayans claimed that on December 21 2012, a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count supposedly comes to a close.

Experts estimate the system, which is made up of 394-year periods called baktuns, starts counting at 3114 BC, and will have run through 13 baktuns, or 5,125 years, around December 21.

They say 13 was a significant number for the Maya, and the end of that cycle would be a milestone — but they have been keen to stress that it does not mark an end.

Conspiracy theorists nonetheless believe the Maya may have been privy to impending astronomical disasters that would coincide with 2012, ranging from explosive storms on the surface of the sun that could knock out power grids to a galactic alignment that could trigger a reversal in Earth's magnetic field

/dailymail.co.uk/