Atlas: Expeditions Through Time

maritime

Kon-Tiki Expedition

Thor Heyerdahl and five companions crossed the eastern Pacific on a balsa raft from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands.

Dates28 April 1947–7 August 1947
Purposeexperimental voyage, documentation
Outcomecompleted
Transportraft

Historical significance

The voyage demonstrated that such a crossing was technically possible, although it did not prove Heyerdahl’s contested theory of Polynesian settlement.

Callao to Raroia

Pacific crossing

28 April 1947–7 August 1947 · raft · high route

Representative route: Callao → Raroia

People

  • Thor Heyerdahl: Norwegian ethnographer who organized and led the Kon-Tiki experimental raft voyage.

Vehicles

  • Kon-Tiki: Balsa-log raft built for the 1947 experimental Pacific crossing.

Major places

  • Callao: The principal port of Lima, visited by HMS Beagle and later used as Kon-Tiki’s departure harbour.
  • Raroia: The Tuamotu atoll where Kon-Tiki ran onto the reef after 101 days.

Sources

  1. Kon-Tiki, 1947, The Kon-Tiki Museum. Purpose, departure, raft, crew, and voyage context.
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