Photo Credit To Wikipedia Commons/Kon-Tiki, 1947
Story Highlights
- Historical event
- 7 August 1947
- After a voyage of 101 days, the Kon-Tiki raft reached the Raroia atoll within the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia. There were six people aboard the raft (Heyerdahl, four Norwegians, and one Swede), plus one parrot.
On this day in 1947 an expedition led by Thor Heyerdahl finished its famous journey on the Kon-Tiki raft.
By that expedition, Heyerdahl wanted to prove that it was possible the Polynesian islands had been settled by people from pre-Columbian South America.
An expedition on the Kon-Tiki raft, built using approximately South American techniques, left Peru on 28 April 1947. There were six people aboard the raft (Heyerdahl, four Norwegians, and one Swede), plus one parrot.
After a voyage of 101 days, the Kon-Tiki raft reached the Raroia atoll within the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia. The expedition crossed a total of around 6,980 km at an average speed of around 1.5 knots.
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