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The Kon-Tiki expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name.
Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, [8] Norway, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl (1869–1957) and his wife, Alison Lyng (1873–1965). As a young child, Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology, inspired by his mother, who had a strong interest in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Norwegian: Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen) is a 1948 book by the Norwegian writer Thor Heyerdahl.It recounts Heyerdahl's experiences with the Kon-Tiki expedition, where he travelled across the Pacific Ocean on a balsa tree raft.
The movie has an introduction explaining Heyerdahl's theory, then shows diagrams and images explaining the building of the raft and its launch from Peru. Thereafter it is a film of the crew on board, shot by themselves, with commentary written by Heyerdahl and translated. The whole film is black and white, shot on a single 16mm camera.
The museum was originally built to house the Kon-Tiki, a raft of balsa wood of pre-Columbian model that Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl used to sail from Peru to Polynesia in 1947. Another boat in the museum is the Ra II , a vessel built of reeds according to Heyerdahl's perception of an ancient Egyptian seagoing boat.
He met Thor Heyerdahl in New York City, where he was asked to participate in the construction of the Kon-Tiki raft and become a member of the expedition. [1] On board the raft, where he was second in command, he was responsible for meteorological and hydrographic measurements. [2] He moved to Lima, Peru, in 1950.
7 August – Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 4,300-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
As such, the expedition represents a scientific continuation of Thor Heyerdahl's experiments in recreated maritime technology. [1] The raft was named after the Māori sea-god Tangaroa. Based on records of ancient Andean vessels, the raft used a relatively sophisticated square sail that allowed sailing into the wind, or tacking. It was 16 m (52 ...