When Hector Siliezar visited the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza with his wife and kids in 2009, he snapped three iPhone photos of El Castillo, a pyramid that once served as a sacred temple to the Mayan god Kukulkan. A thunderstorm was brewing near the temple, and Siliezar was trying to capture lightning crackling dramatically over the ruins.

In the first two images, dark clouds loom above the pyramid, but nothing is amiss. However, in the third photo, a powerful beam of light appears to shoot up from the pyramid toward the heavens, and a thunderbolt flashes in the background.

Siliezar, who recently shared his photographs with occult investigators, told Earthfiles.com that he and his family didn’t see the light beam in person; it appeared only on camera.

The photo has surfaced on several Mayan doomsday discussion forums.

Has anyone been able to test if the lightbeam was put in after the photo was taken, or any other reason for it, Duck?

wow, that is such a cool picture :)

It's a light artifact ,a distortion in an image that arises from the way cameras bounce around incoming light.. I was having awful problems with them in the classroom the other day on my Lumix z5. That one is just a happy coincidence that it lines up with the top of the temple.

athumbsup Ok, thanks, Duck.

ive seen one before in a picture of my little brother :)

it looks really cool though, even though its probably just a coincidence

Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. I think I'll build a bunker, just in case you're wrong Duck. :D