法国小村成避难所

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。据悉，这座村庄位于比加哈什峰的山脚下，而大批外星人信奉者认为这个山峰其实是外星人的停机库，一旦世界末日来临，躲在山顶岩石下面的外星人就会乘坐他们的飞船离开地球，届时在周边存活的人类自然也会有幸被带走。

这一切皆因为十年前该村庄有人声称见到外星人还听到飞船起降，之后便一直有外星人信奉者前来造访。网上甚至还流传法国前总统密特朗曾经搭乘直升机秘密在山顶降落，前纳粹组织以及以色列情报组织摩萨德也曾经在山顶做过秘密勘探。随着2012世界末日预言的日期邻近，到该村庄寻求庇护的人也逐渐增多，有人在附近进行各种神秘宗教仪式，甚至有富豪出巨资买下比加哈什峰周边的地产。

The mayor of a picturesque French village has threatened to call in the army to seal it off from a tide of New Age fanatics and UFO watchers, who are convinced it is the only place on Earth to be spared Armageddon 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 inundated by groups of esoteric outsiders who believe the peak is an "alien garage".

According to them, extraterrestrials 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 civilisation 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 cataclysm.

"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 of their spacecraft under the mountain," he said.

The Internet abounds with tales of the late President François Mitterrand being curiously heliported on to the peak, of mysterious digs conducted by the Nazis 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 nude 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 was 72 per cent ramblers. 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" prices, and locals have complained they are being priced out of the market. Strange sect-like courses are held for up to