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GHF's The Forum on Global Heritage in a Developing World: Focus on Asia in the News
On May 3, 2012 at the Asia Society in New York, GHF hosted "The Forum on Global Heritage in a Developing World: Focus on Asia," a discussion of development challenges facing Asia’s most important and endangered heritage sites. The day-long event featured a diverse program of speakers and panelists, and was well-attended by leading experts in conservation, international development, venture philanthropy, technology, travel, academia and media.
Celebrating Year of the Maya with tour of Latin America's ruins
January 2012
By Laura Allsop, CNN
The Global Heritage Fund has named 2012 “The Year of the Maya,”—the Maya calendar points to December 2012 as the dawn of a new age. La Danta pyramid, at El Mirador in Guatemala, is one of the sites which the Global Heritage Fund is fighting to protect.
London (CNN)—The year 2012 is a significant one in the Maya calendar.
The ancient long count calendar of the Maya, a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished across Mexico and Central America from 2000 BC to the time of the Spanish Conquistadores, states that on the 12th December, 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in approximately 26,000 years.
And 21 December, 2012, is said to mark the end of the 13th Maya Calendar, a 144,000-day cycle or “b’ak’tun” since the mythical Maya day of creation 5,200 years ago.
Though popularly interpreted as signifying the “end of the world as we know it,” scholars stress that the end of the “b’ak’tun” does not mean apocalypse.
While few Maya people still follow the long count calendar, the Global Heritage Fund is celebrating the event by naming 2012 “The Year of the Maya,” with members of the Fund greeting the winter solstice on top of La Danta pyramid at the El Mirador site in Guatemala.
