In Pictures: Celebrating doomsday past and future

A note posted at the town hall in Bugarach reads, "Town Hall will be exceptionally closed December 21, 2012", December 19, 2012. The Peak of Bugarach, in southwestern France and surrounded in legend for centuries, has become a focal point for many Apocalypse believers as rumors have circulated that its mountain contains doors into other worlds, or that extraterrestrials will return here on Judgment day to take refuge at their base. Residents of the tiny southern French hamlet, are witness to a rising influx of Doomsday believers convinced it is the only place that will survive judgment day.