People from around the world started arriving in the tiny Turkish town of Sirince on Thursday (December 20), believed to be one of the few places on earth not affected by doomsday and "the end of the world" allegedly outlined in the Mayan calendar.

Sirince is located in western Turkey near the ancient Ephesus ruins.

Thousands more people are expected to arrive on Friday, marking the end of the Mayan calendar.

One tourist who arrived from Australia was Madlen Habeeb, saying she chose to come to Sirince not only because it is a safe place to stay during the apocalypse but to drink fruit wines.

"Well, there could be chaos in the rest of the world. So I think it is a good idea that we stay here. Somewhere that we know that will be safe and there is plenty of police to protect us and I think this is a good choice of places to be and there is lots of fruit wine to drink as well," said Habeeb.

Another visitor, Stewart Beal, joked that he had come to Sirince to survive the apocalypse.

"We came because it is the end of the world tomorrow and we thought we better pop in here because apparently, this place will be saved," said Beal.

Not only followers of the Mayan calendar theory came to Sirince but also those who just wanted to observe human behaviour, like German anthropology student Almouth Dieden.

She said it was a rare opportunity to observe people's behaviour.

"When I heard of this event I thought this is quite interesting for me to see what kind of people are here, what actors are involved in this whole event. What kind of an event it is. Is it actually what media tells us,." said Dieden.

Infrastructure and security preparations are underway for doomsday.

While national and international media representatives already descended on the town, a field hospital was being set up to attend to any injured people.

Hundreds of police forces also deployed to the town to enforce security.

Check points were established at the entrance of the town where cars and people are being checked.

- Reuters