Majora's mask clock tower clock

I was looking at some video of mayan civilisation and they were talking about the prochecy in 2012 about the world ending and I noticed that there calander clock is really similar to the clock in clock town.

It's obviously trying to compare the prophecy of the world ending in 2012 to the moon crashing and destroying termina. Its amazing how nintendo draws from so many different cultures and mythologies and it really makes the games so much more interesting and relevant.

What do you lot think?

Spotted any other cultural references in the zelda games?

I never caught that. Seems obvious now that you point it out. I know there's a lot of other cultural references, but I can't recall any right now. ): If I remember correctly, ALttP is packed with 'em.

Coincidence. . .possibly. I do find it ironic, but I am not surprised. I never looked for cultural references myself, but Nintendo will relate a lot of things like this.

I agree with you, I also saw a church once that looked almost exactly like the Temple of Time.

Wow stalfos child, it does look like Clock Tower's Clock, good eye!

There was a cross on link's shield and in graveyards.

Interesting connection, however I believe that Nintendo may have originally got its "end of the world" involving "death from above" idea from the Y2K theory that said that the world's computers would launch all the nuclear weapons in the year 2000 (when the game was released) after the computers' malfunctioned if they could not change their dates from '99 to '00. I am curious when the 2012 prophecy started. I believe it was back in 2004 because I have been hearing about it since 2005 but then again I might be wrong, it has happened before.

Oh yes, it does.



Zelda series have alot of aztec/mayan culture references.

In WW the stone heads remindsme the tolteca's stone heads





Also the tower of the gods statues and the boss godhan looks like aztec/mesoamerican culture gods.


More recently, SS's lava fountains remindsme alot, Quetzalcoatl a aztec/mesoamerican ancient god.





I'm very proud of my ancestors culture.

It seems that developers borrow mythologies from ancient cultures , as do TV Shows like Stargate SG-1 with the heavy influence from ancient egypt cultures and mixes different cultures, it just helps make the story and plot much deeper and more captivating , the Legend of Zelda series was also influenced by the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the roundtable of Camelot and Avalon. but Mayan / Aztec / Toltec/ Olmec (Central American Cultures ) are extremely fascinating because of how much more advanced they were compared to the Old world cultures in the same time period, being able to build structures which such perfect precision that even modern people with all of modern building equipment that we could not even I remember learning about this place called Tiwananku which was built by a culture that did not even have a a writing system. World Mysteries - Mystic Places - TIWANAKU / Tiahuanaco.
and the cool thing is these ancient cultures are borrowed and become part of stories of many video games and just add a whole lot to the gameplay experience in the way of depth in the story.

Now the desert Colussus seems to be straight out of Egyptian culture , it might be based on Luxor Temple http://www.cor-images.com/images/LUX...e_entrance.jpg. and the Gerudo Fortress seems to be based on The Valley of the Kings in Egypt. http://images.picturesdepot.com/phot...ngs-209006.JPG because of the way the fort is built into the cliff face. Now it seems the people of the Gerudo are likely based off of Ancient Arabian culture because of the way they are dressed and the weapons they use.

now strangely in the Twilight Princess the Arbitor's Grounds at least the intior seems to be based on Mayan Culture , while the exterior is clearly a mix of later Egyptian / Roman. http://www.zeldawiki.org/images/8/8c...7s_Grounds.jpg

Senna agrees with this, but shouldn't this be in "General Zelda" or "NES/SNES/N64 Zelda" ?

Good thread.

Let's not forget the Stone Tower and the Tower of Babel:

There's a few Hindu references in A Link to the Past.

The sages are named after two of the seven primary chakras. Sahasrahla takes his name from Sahasrara, the seventh chakra, which symbolizes detachment from illusion. Aginah seems to be based on Ajna, the sixth one (said to be the chakra of the mind). The remaining chakras are Vishuddha, Anahata, Manipura, Swadhisthana, and Muladhara. Mudora could be a reference to the last one on this list.

Agahnim is named after Agni, the vedic god of fire and messenger to the gods (he's specifically the acceptor of sacrifices). Art typically shows him red (matching the colour of Agahnim's robe in the official art), and with two faces, reportedly to represent his destructive and beneficent attributes. Incidentally, agnim is the sanskrit word for fire, suggesting Agahnim's Japanese name (Agunimu) should actually be rendered Agnim.

Hindu mythology also has it that the universe is governed by a divine triad; Brahmā the creator, Viṣṇu the maintainer or preserver, and Śiva the destroyer. Brahmā created the seven great sages (the Saptarishi) to help him create the universe.