Devoured by a giant squash, engulfed by flood or flames, frozen in a nuclear winter or new Ice Age, mankind has looked to ‘The End’ with fear and fascination since the dawn of civilisation.

Nature’s cycles – day succeeding night, the four seasons – long fed fears of being plunged into eternal darkness or an endless winter.

“Before the great monotheistic religions, most ancient civilisations lived in fear that these cycles would one day stop,” explained historian Bernard Sergent, author of a recent book exploring 13 apocalyptic myths.

The Aztecs believed there was a chance that once every 52 years, the sun would no longer rise, so they ordered copious human sacrifices to ensure it did.

But rather than ‘The End’, a good old apocalypse has often been viewed as a way to reset the clock, divide good from evil and start anew.

The Book of Revelation, the last in the New Testament, describes a string of cataclysmic events that annihilate part of life on earth, culminating with the announcement of the Second Coming of Christ.

Islam also offers a repertoire of tales of mass destruction – by sandstorm, invasion or fire.

At the start of the Renaissance, the Anabaptists were convinced the end of the world was nigh, and that it was vital to ‘rebaptise’ adults before it came.

For thousands of years water was the apocalyptic weapon of choice.

Ancient Greece and Rome had their share of floods, too: from the Greek deluge of Ogyges to Atlantis, the legendary island swallowed up by the sea, as recounted by the philosopher Plato.

At the dawn of our era, a deluge myth told by a small people from the Near East, the Hebrews, went on to become the most famous of all.

According to the Book of Genesis, God decided to rid earth of men and animals, instructing a single, ‘righteous’ man, Noah, to build an ark to save himself and a remnant of life.

Africa and ancient Egypt had no flood myths, but West African folk tales do speak of a “devouring gourd”, or calabash, that swallows up entire settlements, even the whole of mankind.