The Mayan calendar ends on Friday, and some people believe that means the world will come to an end.
The descendants of the ancient Maya people, however, don't actually believe in the pending apocalypse.
Regardless, the ancient Maya world is in the spotlight. The Maya built great cities around Central America, and today you can see traces of the pre-Columbian civilization in their ruins in Guatemala, Belize and Mexico.
Google Street View captured the great Mayan ruins in Mexico, allowing the world to explore the grand pyramids, ball courts, and temples without leaving their chairs. Some of the featured destinations include the storied ruins of Teotihuacan, Palenque and Chichén Itzá.
This series is part of the Google Wonders Project, an initiative by Google that documents important archaeological sites and monuments around the world.
The legendary ruins of Chichén Itzá, in the Yucatán, are remnants of the ancient Maya civilization. At the center of the city is the stone Temple of Kukulkan, also known as "El Castillo."
This 82-foot square-shaped pyramid has four stairways, one on each side, which each have 91 steps. When you combine all of the steps with the top platform you get a total of 365, which represents all the days of the year. You can't climb the steps today though.
El Caracol (The Observatory), meaning "the snail" (a name it earned for its snail-like shape), has a circular tower that was used as an observatory.
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