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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.
The long-term buoyancy of balsa logs has been called into question. Prior to the voyage across the Pacific Ocean of the Kon-Tiki in 1947, scholars often argued that balsa logs absorb water so quickly that long voyages were infeasible. Heyerdahl, however, used green balsa wood logs for a voyage of 101 days on the Kon-Tiki.
Similar accounts by Spanish chroniclers (e.g. Juan de Betanzos) describe Viracocha as a "white god", often with a beard. [25] The whiteness of Viracocha is however not mentioned in the native authentic legends of the Incas and most modern scholars therefore had considered the "white god" story to be a post-conquest Spanish invention. [26]
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen, also known as Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft), 1948. American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952), 821 pages. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, 1957.
The expedition was done so on a large raft, which was named Kon-Tiki in honor of the god Viracocha's "old name". It set sail from Trujillo, Peru. The Kon-Tiki expedition led to Heyerdahl writing a book titled "Kon-Tiki" followed by his documentary and more recently, a movie adaptation.
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.
Like the Kon-Tiki, Rahiti Tane and Tupac Yupanqui were built from balsawood transported from Ecuador to SIMA, the Peruvian Army's shipyard in Callao, Lima. However, the Kon-Tiki2 rafts were different in several respects: Kon-Tiki had a rudder, while the Kon-Tiki2 rafts were steered by guara boards which allowed the rafts to be sailed in ...
On 30 July 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and his six-man expedition aboard the raft Kon Tiki made their first sighting of land since departing Callao, Peru when they passed by Puka-Puka. The islands were devastated by a typhoon in 1996. However, with French assistance, Te One Mahina has been rebuilt. Puka-Puka Airport was inaugurated in 1979.