法国西南部一个只有189人的小村庄近几个月却频频有游客造访，因为他们认为这个村庄是2012年世界末日到来时唯一可以躲过劫难的地方。

The mayor of a picturesque¹（独特的，生动的） French village has threatened to call in the army to seal it off from a tide of New Age fanatics² and UFO watchers, who are convinced it is the only place on Earth to be spared Armageddon（世界末日） in 2012. Bugarach, population 189, is a peaceful farming village in the Aude region, southwestern France and sits at the foot of the Pic de Bugarach, the highest mountain in the Corbières wine-growing area.

But in the past few months, the quiet village has been inundated³（淹没） by groups of esoteric（秘传的） outsiders who believe the peak is an "alien garage".

According to them, extraterrestrials（天外来客） are quietly waiting in a massive cavity beneath the rock for the world to end, at which point they will leave, taking, it is hoped, a lucky few humans with them.

Most believe Armageddon will take place on December 21, 2012, the end date of the ancient Maya calendar, at which point they predict human civilisation⁴ will come to an end. Another favourite date mentioned is 12, December, 2012. They see Bugarach as one of perhaps several "sacred mountains" sheltered from the cataclysm⁵（灾难，大洪水） .

"This is no laughing matter," Jean-Pierre Delord, the mayor, told The Daily Telegraph.

"If tomorrow 10,000 people turn up, as a village of 200 people we will not be able to cope. I have informed the regional authorities of our concerns and want the army to be at hand if necessary come December 2012."

Mr Delord said people had been coming to the village for the past 10 years or so in search of alien life following a post in an UFO review by a local man, who has since died. "He claimed he had seen aliens and heard the humming（嗡嗡声） of their spacecraft under the mountain," he said.

The Internet abounds⁶ with tales of the late President François Mitterrand being curiously⁷ heliported on to the peak, of mysterious digs conducted by the Nazis⁸ and later Mossad, the Israeli secret services.

A visit to Bugarach is said to have inspired Steven Spielberg in his film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind – although the actual mountain he used is Devil's Tower in Wyoming. It is also where Jules Verne found the entrance and the inspiration for A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Recently, however, interest in the site had skyrocketed, said the mayor, with online UFO websites, many in the US, advising people to seek shelter in Bugarach as the countdown to Armageddon commences.

"Many come and pray on the mountainside. I've even seen one man doing some ritual totally nude⁹ up there," said Mr Delord.

Sigrid Benard, who runs the Maison de la Nature guesthouse, said UFO tourists were taking over. "At first, my clientele（客户，诉讼委托人） was 72 per cent ramblers（漫步者） . Today, I have 68 per cent 'esoteric visitors'," he said.

Several "Ufologists" have bought up properties in the small hamlet of Le Linas, in the mountain's shadow for "extortionate（敲诈的，勒索的） " prices, and locals have complained they are being priced out of the market. Strange sect-like courses are held for up to €800 a week. "For this price, you are introduced to a guru, made to go on a procession, offered a christening and other rubbish, all payable¹⁰ in cash," said Mr Delord.