Who was the famous Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl. Journey Senkevich and Thor Heyerdahl on the papyrus boat "Ra" (11 photos)

In the spring of 1969, the papyrus boat "Ra" sailed from the port of Safi, Morocco, under the command of the Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl. Before the crew, consisting of 7 people, among whom was our compatriot Yuri Senkevich, the task was to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Yuri Senkevich and Thor Heyerdahl during a trip to papyrus boat"Ra", 1969

After analyzing many finds that depicted papyrus ships, Heyerdahl began to think that even in the days of pre-Inca America, ancient navigators crossed the Pacific Ocean using reed ships. The possible similarity of the ancient reed vessels, which were made in Mexico and Peru, with the papyrus ships used by the inhabitants of the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, was not denied by other competent researchers.

In 1969 Thor Heyerdahl conceived a papyrus boat expedition across the Atlantic. The researcher provided the craftsmen from Lake Chad with images and models of ancient Egyptian ships. Based on this material, they built a papyrus ship, which was symbolically named "Ra"

In the 60s, Heyerdahl met with Mstislav Keldysh, coming to the USSR. The conversation turned to Heyerdahl's future expeditions, and Keldysh asked him: "Why don't you take a Russian with you?" And, remembering the question of Keldysh, he wrote a letter to the Soviet academician with a request to find him a Russian doctor who speaks English language and having a sense of humour. The choice fell on a young doctor, Yuri Senkevich, who had recently returned from Antarctica from the Vostok station after a year's wintering.
So Senkevich ended up in the international crew: Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Abdulla Jibrin (Chad), Norman Baker (USA), Santiago Genoves (Mexico), George Sorial (Egypt), Carlo Mauri (Italy) and Yuri Senkevich (USSR)

On May 25, 1969, the launch of the papyrus boat "Ra" took place. On board, in addition to the 7 crew members, there were also Safi monkey, chickens and a duck.

A tailwind and the North Equatorial Current contributed to the fact that "Ra" overcame 5 thousand kilometers in 2 months of sailing sea ​​route, but the journey ended with the fact that the boat sank

According to Yuri Senkevich, this happened due to the fact that the builders of the boat from Lake Chad chopped off the bent stern, deciding not to be guided by Heyerdahl's calculations and drawings. And the stern was necessary so that the boat would not flood when it overcomes high waves. When this was realized, the stern was extended, but the integrity of the structure had already been violated. A month after entering the open ocean, the stern began to sink into the water, and "Ra" literally turned into a submarine.

Here are excerpts from the diary of Yuri Senkevich:
"June 4th. In total, we broke five oars and lost one."
"June 29. There is no doubt that we are sinking more and more, albeit slowly. It is also certain that we will not be able to sink, but that the Ra will be flooded on the deck - that's for sure."
"July 9. On the right, the ropes tying the papyrus are torn. The entire starboard side is shaking and threatening to break away from us."

The crew bravely tried to save the boat. Under the helm bridge was a foam life raft, designed for six people, which was sawn and reinforced at the stern. This helped to hold out for another two weeks before the "SOS" signal was sent.

The signal was heard from an American yacht. A word to Yuri Senkevich: “Three or four days have passed, we were about to meet with our saviors. And, rejoicing at this, we sent everything superfluous overboard, including food and water, not assuming that the expectation of the meeting would stretch for another five days. These five days were not the best of our lives." On July 16, 1969, exhausted travelers left the long-suffering boat and moved to the Shenandoah yacht. Thus ended this first, but not last trip.

And a year later, in May, the launch of "Ra-2" took place

He was able to clearly prove: the distant ancestors of today's man were not primitive creatures. They were wonderful projectors and designers, traveled and crossed the seas, oceans, continents, thanks to which they interacted with each other.

Young researcher-zoologist

Thor Heyerdahl was born on October 6, 1914 in the small Norwegian town of Larvik. His parents were quite wealthy and respected people in the city - his father owned a brewery, and his mother was an employee of the anthropological museum. And although there were seven children in the family, each of them received enough attention from their parents and their care. So, Tur's mother was engaged in his education, and already at a young age the guy was familiar with the anthropological theory of Darwin, and his father organized trips to Europe.

Among Tour's many childhood hobbies was a love of nature. As a child, he even tried to organize his own museum at home. It is not known for certain what exhibits its exposition consisted of, but its “highlight” was a stuffed viper, which was proudly shown to frequent guests in the Heyerdahl house as part of a short excursion.

The study of the flora and fauna of our planet almost ended fatally for Tur - once he nearly drowned in a river, and, having escaped, acquired a fear of water for all his childhood. Young Heyerdahl could not even imagine that he would enter the history of mankind thanks to his voyages in open ocean on a raft!

When in 1933 the 19-year-old Tur entered the University of Oslo, in order to comprehend knowledge from the field of geography and zoology, the future scientist met with the outstanding traveler Bjorn Kraepelin. This meeting played an important role in Heyerdahl's life: Bjorn introduced the young student to his collection of objects from the island of Tahiti and numerous books on the history of peoples. The tour was amazed by the knowledge gained, it gave rise to a desire to further understand the culture of little-known peoples. This predetermined his future.

Paradise Island Fatu Hiva

After completing his studies, two incredibly important events take place in the life of Thor Heyerdahl: the young scientist finally married his beloved woman Liv Coucheron-Thorpe, whom he had been in love with from the beginning of his studies, and he also leaves his native land for important scientific research and travels to the islands of Polynesia . The wife went with Heyerdahl, and this business trip became a real one for a couple in love.

The purpose of the Tour was to study the causes of the emergence of certain animal species on the remote islands of Polynesia. For this, the scientist, together with his wife, Panama Canal and went to Tahiti. Here the couple spent a month living in the hut of the local leader, who introduced the newcomers to the life and culture of the tribe. Fascinated by the wild untouched nature and the unusual culture that they sought to explore, the Heyerdahl couple went to the isolated island of Fatu Hiva.

Life, devoid of the benefits of modernity, not burdened by the noise of the city, really liked Tur and Liv. The newlyweds lived like Adam and Eve in complete harmony with nature, rejoicing in its gifts and not remembering that another life exists somewhere - everything around seemed complete and natural. For a whole year, Heyerdahl and his wife lived on a paradise island, but soon a measured and quiet life the end came: Tur fell ill and needed the help of a qualified doctor, and Liv was pregnant. After unforgettable holiday The Heyerdahls have returned to civilization.

The war that invaded the scientist's plans

Returning to Norway, Tour became a father and published a book about his journey called In Search of Paradise. A year spent on the islands of Polynesia radically changed the scientist's views on science in general. His desire to study animals was superseded by a desire to study people and their history: Tour formed a number of theories in his head, and he wanted to confirm them with scientific facts.

So, the researcher suggested that the ancient Incas somehow crossed the ocean and settled the islands of Polynesia. To substantiate this hypothesis, Heyerdahl went to Canada, but no facts proving his assumption could be found.

The anthropologist's plans were violated by the Second World War, during which the Tour was not going to sit out - like a real man and patriot, he went to the front. During the difficult war years, Heyerdahl managed to travel, take part in battles and receive the rank of lieutenant. And at the end of the war, the researcher had a detailed plan for a scientific experiment that would prove the correctness of his theory.

Journey on the Kon-Tiki

Thor Heyerdahl decides to build a raft according to the drawings of the ancient Incas and cross the ocean on it. Science community laughed in the scientist's face, proving the impossibility of the undertaking, but the desperate anthropologist was completely confident in the success of the experiment. Tour, along with five other travelers and scientists, arrived in Peru, where, according to old schemes, drawings, and on the basis of many legends and stories, brave explorers are building a balsa wood raft.

The Kon-Tiki raft, named after the sun god, endured all the vicissitudes of a long journey of 8,000 km and landed on the island of Tuamotu, breaking the Pacific Ocean. 101 days were full of discoveries and incredible adventures, and a close-knit team of scientists proved that a person can not only survive in conditions of complete discomfort, but also find mutual understanding and friendship.

Returning home, Thor Heyerdahl wrote the book "Kon-Tiki", which was an incredible success all over the world, and the documentary film that the scientist filmed while swimming won an Oscar in 1952. But the main achievement of the expedition was not recognition and glory, but proof of the possibility of transatlantic crossings of the ancient Incas.

The failure of "Ra" and the triumph of "Ra II"

Heyerdahl's research did not end there. An anthropologist decides to do the same in order to establish whether the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt could travel across the ocean on their ships. To do this, a scientist with a team of like-minded people builds a papyrus vessel called "Ra", but the boat did not justify the trust of its creator and broke into two parts in the middle of the journey.

Thor Heyerdahl did not despair of such a failure and, taking into account design errors, built the Ra II boat, which successfully crossed Atlantic Ocean and moored off the coast of Barbados. The researcher described the impressions of the trip and his discoveries in the book "Expedition to "Ra"". The researchers did a great job and in addition to justifying Heyerdahl's theory, they collected samples of pollution in the ocean, after which they provided them to the UN, and also proved that even people of different nationalities, beliefs and religious views can exist peacefully on a small piece of land if they are united by a common goal.

Until the deepest old age great explorer Thor Heyerdahl did not leave scientific activity and made many discoveries, but it was his voyages that brought him general fame. Purposeful and enthusiastic, he did not know peace either in research or in his personal life: he had five children and was married three times. Having made a colossal contribution to the development of scientific thought and having gone down in history as the most outstanding Norwegian of the 20th century, Thor Heyerdahl died, surrounded by his family, at the age of 87, from a serious illness - a brain tumor.

From the compiler

What is the difference between swimming. "Kon-Tiki" and "Ra"?

Thor Heyerdahl was asked this question when he, along with the crew of a papyrus boat, arrived in the USSR in the fall of 1969 and talked about his new bold experiment.

In response, the scientist spoke about the fundamental difference between a rough, primitive raft and the perfect design of a papyrus boat. The fact that the ancient papyrus boats are poorly studied, a lot had to be done gropingly, at random - hence the blunders during construction. He also compared the weather: sailing on the Kon-Tiki, the Swede Bengt-Danielson calls the best holiday in his life, and the crew of "Ra" suffered a lot because of the whims of the wind and waves.

But most importantly, Thor Heyerdahl emphasized: “I went to the ocean on the Kon-Tiki to test my hypothesis about the settlement of Polynesia, and before the Ra expedition, I didn’t have a ready-made hypothesis about moving from the Old World to the New through the Atlantic. ocean".

Indeed, after ten years of painstaking research that preceded the Kon-Tiki expedition, Thor Heyerdahl formulated his view of how people were settled in great detail. island world Polynesia in the Pacific. But no one wanted to believe that the natives South America were navigators, and then in 1947 he recreated and tested in practice an ancient raft. True, one successful drift did not solve the issue. And after "Kon-Tiki" we see in 1953 an expedition to Galapagos Islands, in 1955-1956 to Easter Island and other islands of East Polynesia. Every year - trips to different countries, work in museums, study of literature. Heyerdahl's hypothesis caused heated debate, and he stubbornly continued to collect material in various fields of science. He spoke about his research not only in popular books - “In Search of Paradise”, “Kon-Tiki Expedition”, “Aku-Aku”, but also in articles (for example, the collection “The Adventures of One Theory”, which we recommend to everyone who want to better understand the scientific problem that preoccupies Heyerdahl), and in extensive monographs: "American Indians in the Pacific" and two volumes of an account of an expedition to Eastern Polynesia. The discussion continues, but the merit of the Norwegian scientist is that he extremely revived the research work of ethnologists and archaeologists in Polynesia and South America, pushed back the dating of the settlement of Easter Island a thousand years ago, and replenished the Pacific Oceanists' baggage with many completely new facts.

Of course, the "Ra" expedition was also preceded by a long and thorough preparation - in fact, it continues the thirty-year work of Thor Heyerdahl, but this time a narrower question was posed. True, one that can become the key to solving a vast problem! The challenge came from what happened at the 1966 Americanist Congress, where Thor Heyerdahl was asked to direct a symposium on pre-Columbian connections to the New World.

When it came to the Atlantic, the argument, familiar to the captain of the Kon-Tiki, came up that the ocean was an insurmountable barrier to the ancients. A large gap in time does not allow comparing the cultures of, say, the ancient Egyptians and the Olmecs. But from the coast of Africa to Central America there are currents, fair winds blow, and in the Mediterranean already in ancient times there were reliable ships, which means that in principle it is wrong to deny the possibility of any connections across the Atlantic Ocean. And the scientist realized that it was time to set up a new experiment. If the barrier argument disappears, it may be necessary to take a different look at many questions, to evaluate the material accumulated by specialists in a different way.

It's hard to imagine a more romantic and daring experience: sailing out into the ocean on a papyrus boat! But even now the basis was not just a deep faith in the ancient man, his mind and hands, but a long research and serious practical training.

And this time, as before the Kon-Tiki expedition, there were plenty of scientific skeptics, and simply those of little faith who prophesied the imminent death of the boat and crew. But the brave heart and inquisitive mind of the researcher won.

The Kon-Tiki raft became a scientific concept; after its voyage, scientists had to reconsider their view of the contacts of ancient peoples across the Pacific Ocean. The papyrus boat "Ra" has also become a scientific concept: now it is impossible to dismiss the possibility of ancient voyages from Africa to America from the threshold.

We offer the reader a very different materials, by which one can judge the work of Thor Heyerdahl both in the Pacific Ocean and in the Atlantic, one can trace the natural connection between Kon-Tiki and Ra. In the first place - his scientific article, published in 1966. It contains the theoretical basis of many years of research, substantiation of views, polemics with prominent scientists - ethnographers, historians. And a program for the future: reading about the reed boat, now we immediately see how the idea of ​​​​a new scientific experiment naturally developed.

A second article written by Thor Heyerdahl for a newspaper in 1969 shows us the same boat. close-up the idea is starting to come true.

And finally, the papyrus boat “Ra” is in the ocean, and we are reading a report from its side. A short story about an unusual scientific experience. And also about another experiment: the son of a troubled time, Thor Heyerdahl wanted to show the world that people of various nationalities and beliefs can do difficult and responsible work together.

The result is summed up by the historian and philosopher V. M. Bakhta, well knowledgeable questions that occupy the Norwegian scientist, and his works.

However, it is too early to sum up! The expedition on the balsa raft "Kon-Tiki" turned out to be a springboard for new interesting research, and the Pacific Oceanists immediately got more work to do. So the expedition on the papyrus boat "Ra" is only the beginning. There will be new voyages and other exciting things to do

Thor Heyerdahl

Transoceanic voyages: isolationism, diffusionism or something in between?

When there is such a long and heated argument between the two sides, as between diffusionists and isolationists in American anthropology, are we obliged to choose one of the two and conclude that one camp is right and the other is wrong? Is it not possible that both sides, approaching the opponent's arguments as an indivisible whole, which must either be fully accepted or completely rejected, while turning a blind eye to valuable judgments? Anyone who has watched the heated battles between these two camps in recent decades (and even more so those who have voluntarily or unwittingly become involved in them) must inevitably notice that both of them include people who are deeply convinced of the correctness of their views and, by virtue of their positions in science that deserve serious attention.

Heyerdahl Tour

Norwegian traveler, ethnographer, archaeologist, anthropologist

To confirm his theory of the initial settlement of the islands of Polynesia from America in 1947, he sailed with a crew on the Kon-Tiki raft from Peru to Polynesia. In 1969 and 1970 sailed on papyrus boats "Ra" from Africa to the islands of Central America, in 1977-1978. - on the reed boat "Tigris" along the route of El Qurna (Iraq) - the mouth of the Indus - Djibouti.

Brief chronology

1933-36 studying at the University of Oslo at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, specializing in geography and zoology; study of the cultural history of Polynesia

1936 expedition to Polynesia on the island of Fatu-Hiva of the Marquesas archipelago; the origin of the theory of the original settlement of the islands of Polynesia from America

1938 publication of the first book of the Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl "In Search of Paradise"

1947 expedition "Kon-Tiki", as a result of which the book "Journey to the Kon-Tiki" was written

1955-56 archaeological expedition to Easter Island, as a result of which the book "Aku-Aku" was written

1969-70 an attempt to cross the Atlantic in papyrus boats "Ra" and "Ra-II"; the book “Expeditions to Ra” was written about the expeditions and a documentary film was made

1977 expedition on the reed boat "Tigris"

1983-84 study of mounds found in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean; based on the results of the study, the publication of the book "The Maldivian Mystery"

1991 exploration of the Guimar pyramids on the island of Tenerife; following the results of the study, the publication of the book “In Search of Odin. In the footsteps of our past"

1999 Thor Heyerdahl was recognized as the most famous Norwegian of the 20th century.

Life story

Thor Heyerdahl was born on October 6, 1914 in the Norwegian town of Larvik. His father was a brewer. Mother ran the household. It was a strict pedantic lady. In the spirit of the same strict pedantry, she raised her son. The daily routine was almost military: at the same hours, getting up, toileting, exercising, breakfast, work and study, lunch, etc. Moreover, this routine was strictly observed. So, one day a fire started in the house. Everyone had to urgently get out into the street. But since little Tur was sitting on the potty, the mother did not move until the little one had finished the job. And only then did mother and son leave the house with dignity. This is what the real, and not invented by the Germans, “Nordic” character is. There have always been many such people in Norway, and in this sense we can say that Thor Heyerdahl was born in the most ordinary family. True, such “commonness” is worth a lot if, as a result of the upbringing received in this family, honesty, directness, love of order, determination and courage become the most ordinary qualities for a person, and he perceives their absence in others as an illness or perversion. Thor Heyerdahl was just such an ordinary person, that is, honest, direct, decisive and courageous.

From childhood, Tur dreamed of distant lands and travels. Most of all attracted his travels in the northern latitudes. As a high school student, Tur built a snow dwelling far outside the city (like an Eskimo igloo) and spent several days there with a friend and a dog. He always remembered that his country is the birthplace of not only the Vikings, who were ahead of Columbus in the discovery of America, but also the great travel scientists - Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen.

But the first real journey of the Norwegian was a family expedition to the region southern seas – Polynesia. After graduating from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, the young geographer and zoologist Heyerdahl, disillusioned with academic science, goes to Fatu Hiva island of the Marquesas archipelago. There they, having retired from civilization and white people, lived whole year. During this year, Thor Heyerdahl, having become acquainted with local myths and traditions, came to the conclusion that, quite possibly, the ancestors of the natives came to Polynesia from South America. He was convinced of this by the direction of the winds and ocean currents. They, according to the young researcher, were the reason for the birth of life on the islands.

For Heyerdahl as a scientist, experiment was the main criterion of truth. How can one test the hypothesis of the settlement of Polynesia by the ancient American Indians? Only by doing the voyage himself at the behest of the waves and winds, on a ship that is as similar as possible to the antediluvian samples. However, Heyerdahl managed to implement his plan only after the end of the Second World War. And while the war was going on, the descendant of the Vikings and at the same time the lieutenant of the US Army had to travel exclusively in accordance with military orders.

After the war, namely in 1947, Heyerdahl's scientific experiment was staged. Used as an antediluvian vessel raft "Kon-Tiki" from balsa wood, which was built like the ships of the most ancient navigators. The choice of material for the raft was determined not only by its unusually low density (about the same as that of modern polystyrene), but also by Heyerdahl's desire to refute the established opinion that people traveling on South American balsa rafts across the ocean, from Peru to Polynesia, were technically impossible. Thus, the expedition to the "Kon-Tiki" solved, in addition to the historical-geographical and ethnographic, also a purely technical problem.

The expedition started from the Peruvian Port of Callao. 7 brave sailors set off along the route, which, according to local legends, was once the great leader Kon-Tiki, who was expelled from Peru by the Inca conquerors. Swimming took longer three months, or rather, a hundred days. These were 100 days that did not shock the world, like 10 days of the seventeenth year, but, on the contrary, made it quiet down and await new messages from newspapers and radio with bated breath. On the one hundred and first day, a balsa raft under sail with a stylized image of the legendary Kon-Tiki and with bearded white people on board landed on the coast of the Polynesian Raroia Islands.

This was Thor Heyerdahl's first victory. Indeed, before his intervention, scientists considered the ancestors of the islanders to be aliens from India and China, from the Middle and Far East, from Egypt, Japan, even from Atlantis!

In 1955-1956, Thor Heyerdahl organized Norwegian archaeological expedition to Easter Island. Heyerdahl, along with professional archaeologists, spent several months on Easter Island, exploring a number of important archaeological sites. Pivotal to the project were experiments in carving, dragging, and erecting the famous moai statues, as well as excavations at high elevations such as Orongo and Poike.

Thor Heyerdahl wanted to test the hypothesis that when the famous statues were installed by the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island, they moved in an upright position, that is, they seemed to “walk” themselves. Thor Heyerdahl managed to show the whole world how it was done.

Local legend claimed that these colossal statues, depicting the leaders of the "short-eared" tribe, from the quarry, where they were carved, to the place of "rooting" got almost "under their own power", under the powerful influence of "mana" - a magical force that was created by strong-willed by the efforts of ancient sorcerers. In the sixties, when the fascination with magic and "extrasensory perception", as well as the teachings of E.P. Blavatsky and E.I. Roerich, some "scientific" journalists and other representatives of the educated public began to support this version. Of course, Thor Heyerdahl was not among the adherents of these teachings. As always, he decided to experiment.

To do this, he chose one statue lying on the ground and used for its movement a method that has long been known to loaders and riggers around the world, as well as ordinary citizens who sometimes have to move cabinets and other bulky furniture on their own. This classic method allows you to tilt large and massive objects over fairly long distances. Modern islanders (“short-eared”) acted as riggers under the leadership of a foreman - “senior Kon-Tiki”. It took strong ropes, logs, stones and poles, as well as well-coordinated actions and thoughtful commands of the scientist - and now the medium-sized statue, which had lain for 300 years, took a vertical position, stood, as if thinking, and - slowly, waddling, moved to its destination, turning with an expressive, nosy face, now to one side, then to the other. The cameramen filmed this scene so that the whole enlightened world could see how the giant moai, the statues of the island of Rapa Nui, move “under their own power”.

Of course, Heyerdahl's experience with the movement of the long-eared idol did not claim to explain other burning secrets of antiquity - such as the construction of the Baalbek veranda from stone blocks, a thousand times more massive in comparison with the modest Rapanui statue, the construction of the great pyramids of Giza and other colossi of ancient architecture. But the scientific and historical significance of this experiment is important, if only for the simple reason that in subsequent publications about the island of Pasca and its statues, the mysterious “mana” of the Rapanui sorcerers, the participation of aliens and other near-scientific components began to take up less and less space.

The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports ("Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and in Eastern part Pacific Ocean»); later Heyerdahl supplemented them with a third - "The Art of Easter Island". This expedition laid the foundation for many archaeological surveys that continue on the island to this day. T. Heyerdahl's popular book on this topic, Aku-Aku, has become another international bestseller.

In Easter Island: A Mystery Solved (1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on local evidence and archaeological research, he stated that the island was inhabited at the very beginning by "long-eared" from South America, and "short-eared" arrived there from Polynesia only in the middle of the 16th century; they may have come to the island on their own, or may have been brought in as labor. According to Heyerdahl's theory, something happened on the island between its discovery by the Dutch admiral Jakob Roggeveen in 1722 and the visit of James Cook in 1774. If Roggeven met on the island both whites, and Indians, and Polynesians, who lived in relative harmony and prosperity, then by the time Cook arrived, the population had already been significantly reduced, and it consisted mainly of Polynesians who lived in need.

In 1969 and 1970 Thor Heyerdahl built two papyrus boats and tried to cross the atlantic ocean, choosing the coast of Morocco in Africa as the starting point of his voyage.

The first boat, designed according to the drawings and models of boats of Ancient Egypt and named "Ra", was built by specialists with Lake Chad(Republic of Chad) from reeds mined on Lake Tana in Ethiopia, and entered the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Morocco. After a few weeks "Ra" began to bend due to design flaws, immerse the stern into the water and, in the end, broke into pieces. The team was forced to leave the ship. Another boat next year "Ra-II", modified taking into account the experience of the previous voyage, was built by craftsmen from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and also set sail from Morocco, this time crowned with complete success. The boat has reached Barbados, thus demonstrating that ancient navigators could make transatlantic crossings under sail, using the Canary Current. Despite the fact that the purpose of the voyage of "Ra" was only to confirm seaworthiness ancient ships built of light reeds, the success of the Ra-II expedition was regarded as evidence that even in prehistoric times, Egyptian navigators, intentionally or accidentally, could travel to the New World.

A book was written about these expeditions. "Expeditions to "Ra"" and made a documentary.

In 1977, T. Heyerdahl built another reed boat, the Tigris, whose task was to demonstrate that trade and migration contacts could exist between Mesopotamia and the Indus civilization in the face of modern Pakistan. The Tigris was built in Iraq and sailed with an international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and from there to the Red Sea. After about 5 months of navigation, the Tigris, which retained its seaworthiness, was burned in Djibouti on April 3, 1978 in protest against the wars that broke out in the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa.

Heyerdahl's expedition on the reed boat "Tigris", woven from reed in the style of ancient Sumerian ships, confirmed that Mesopotamian reed is just as suitable for boat building as papyrus, it only needs to be collected in a certain season when it has the greatest water resistance. This was certainly known to the Sumerian boat builders, who on similar "tigris" rose from the mouth of the Indus and the Red Sea. Unfortunately, the crew of the Tigris was not able to complete the planned program one hundred percent: when the ship ended up in a war zone that was then tearing apart the Middle East, and was detained by the military authorities, the crew set fire to their ship in protest.

In 1983-1984, Thor Heyerdahl also examined mounds found in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. Thor Heyerdahl's expedition to Maldives set out to confirm that long before the Arabs and Vasco da Gama, mysterious ancient navigators visited these places, leaving behind stone sculptures of unknown bearded people, long-eared, like idols on Easter Island.

In 1991 Heyerdahl researched Pyramids of Guimar in Tenerife and announced that they could not be just mountains of cobblestones, but were indeed pyramids. He also gave an opinion on the astronomical orientation of the pyramids. Heyerdahl put forward a theory according to which the Canary Islands in ancient times were a staging post on the route between America and the Mediterranean.

Heyerdahl's latest project is described in his book "Looking for Odin. In the footsteps of our past". Heyerdahl began excavations in Azov, a city not far from Sea of ​​Azov. He tried to find traces ancient civilization Asgard, corresponding to the texts of the "Ynglinga Saga", the author of which was Snorri Sturluson. In this saga, it is said that a leader named Odin led a tribe called Ases and led them north through Saxony to the island of Funen in Denmark, and finally settled in Sweden. There, according to the text of Snorri Sturluson, he made such an impression on the locals with his varied knowledge that they began to worship him after his death as a god. Heyerdahl suggested that the story told in the Ynglinga Saga is based on real facts.

This project has caused sharp criticism in Norway from historians, archaeologists and linguists and has been recognized as pseudoscientific. Heyerdahl was accused of selective use of sources and a complete lack of scientific methodology in his work. In this book, Heyerdahl bases his argument on the similarity of names in Norse mythology and geographical names the Black Sea region - for example, Azov and Ases, Udins and Odin, Tyr and Turkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as accidental, as well as chronological errors: for example, the city of Azov got its name 1,000 years after the Ases, the inhabitants of Asgard, settled there, according to Heyerdahl. The bitter controversy that surrounded the Quest for Odin project was in many ways typical of Heyerdahl's relationship with academia. His theories rarely received scientific recognition, while Heyerdahl himself rejected scientific criticism and focused on publishing his theories in popular literature intended for the general public.

Heyerdahl argued that the Udins, an ethnic minority in Azerbaijan, were descendants of Scandinavians. In the last two decades of his life, he traveled several times to Azerbaijan and visited the church of Kish. His theory regarding Odin was rejected by the scientific community, but was accepted as fact by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway.

In 2001, Heyerdahl came to Russia and, speaking to scientists and journalists in Rostov-on-Don, stunned and at the same time inspired them with the statement: “Perhaps the ancestors of the Scandinavians came from the Azov-Caucasian region!” The indefatigable researcher based himself on the texts of the famous medieval historian Snorre Sturlusson, which say that over 2,000 years ago, the mighty leader Ogden moved to the North with his aces warriors from the Caucasus. This immediately brings to mind the name of Odin, the supreme god of the Scandinavians and the leader of the heroic tribe of Ases. “If Ogden and Odin are one and the same person, then is it not from the name of the As people that the names of the city of Azov and the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov come from?” the scientist asked, starting archaeological excavations in the middle of the city blocks of Azov, and explained to reporters “I don’t have to prove that I am right that Snorre described real events. I just want to know the truth about how the world was thousands of years ago, where and where the peoples moved from.”

Heyerdahl was an activist in green politics. World fame Heyerdahl was the reason for his meetings with famous politicians. He even made a presentation on the importance of protection environment before the last head of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev. Heyerdahl participated in the awarding of the Alternative Nobel Prize every year as a member of the jury. In 1994, Heyerdahl and actress Liv Ullman were chosen by the Norwegians to perform an honorary duty opening of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer and appeared before a television audience of more than a billion people. In 1999 compatriots Thor Heyerdahl was named the most famous Norwegian of the 20th century. He was the recipient of numerous medals and prizes, as well as 11 honorary degrees from American and European universities.

Heyerdahl died at the age of 87 from a brain tumor at the Colla-Mikeri estate in the Italian town Alassio, surrounded by his family. In his homeland, a monument was erected to him during his lifetime, and a museum was opened in his house.

A STORY ABOUT THOR HEYERDAHL

Toman I.B.

The famous Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002) lived in the 20th century, when, it would seem, there was no place left on earth where no human foot would go. And yet his discoveries are no less impressive than the discoveries of navigators of past eras, for he wandered not so much in space as in time, and in its depths he discovered worlds that no one knew existed.

The main idea that inspired Thor Heyerdahl throughout his long life was to prove the high level of culture of peoples whom self-satisfied Europeans used to consider "primitive". He wanted to prove that their history is no less ancient and no less rich in events and achievements in the field of spiritual and material life than European culture.

Since 1937, Thor Heyerdahl has been studying the origins of the Polynesian population and put forward the bold hypothesis that these islands were inhabited by immigrants from South America. To prove it, in 1947, together with five companions, he sailed on the Kon-Tiki raft, built on the model of ancient Peruvian rafts.

Kon-Tiki (that is, the Sun - Tiki) is the name of the legendary divine leader of one of the disappeared peoples of South America, about whom the Incas told. Driven by enemies from their land, they sailed away in an unknown direction, and no one heard from them again. Only the majestic ruins in the area of ​​Lake Titicaca reminded of this once great lost civilization. But did she really disappear without a trace? In Polynesia, Thor Heyerdahl, talking to local residents, learned that their ancestors long ago sailed here from across the ocean, and also that the first ancestor and supreme leader of the Polynesians was called Tiki, that is, the same as the legendary leader mysterious inhabitants South America. He also found other evidence of the kinship of the two peoples: in particular, the sculptures depicting the gods had a lot in common. However, the collected facts came into conflict with one seemingly indisputable argument: the ancient peoples could not cross the ocean on their fragile rafts. This was considered an axiom, and Thor Heyerdahl called it into question. The ancient peoples, he believed, were brave seafarers, and their capabilities were much greater than Europeans traditionally believed.

The expedition traveled from Callano (Peru) to the Tuamotu Islands (Polynesia), using the system of sea currents and winds prevailing in this region of the Pacific Ocean. So, reincarnated as a man of a distant era, Thor Heyerdahl proved the truth of his theory. He described his journey in the world-famous book "Journey to Kon-Tiki". Shortly after its publication, it was translated into Russian and published several times in our country in huge editions. She was especially popular among teenagers, who, thanks to her, learned not only the history and culture of distant exotic countries, but also, to one degree or another, acquired a number of important life guidelines. And indeed: Thor Heyerdahl's book has not only educational and cognitive, but also educational value. It teaches purposefulness and perseverance, a cold-blooded attitude to hardships and hardships, but, most importantly, it shows the inherent value of the culture of every era and every nation. The world is infinitely diverse and beautiful, and its beauty is open to everyone who frees himself from prejudices and a priori judgments and opens his heart to the new and unknown.

And one more thing: the book "Journey to Kon-Tiki", despite the scrupulous description of the expedition and preparation for it, various scientific theories and his own research, is full of true poetry. This is evidenced by at least the following passage: “Coal-black waves rose from all sides, myriads of stars shone above us. The world was simple - stars and night. Suddenly, it didn't matter if it was AD 1947 or before. You lived and felt life with heightened brilliance. It seemed that a small but immeasurably rich world, the center of which was a raft, had existed since the beginning of time and would continue to exist indefinitely. We realized that life was complete for people long before our age of technology, it was for them in many respects even fuller and richer than life. modern man. Time and evolution ceased to exist for us. All this was real and what mattered always existed and will exist. We felt ourselves in the very bowels of history, around us reigned hopeless darkness and myriads of stars.

In 1953, Thor Heyerdahl led an archaeological expedition to the Galapagos Islands and discovered traces of an ancient civilization there. In 1955-1956. he spent archaeological research on the Easter, Rapa Iti and Marquesas Islands and found out that they were inhabited as early as the 4th century.

In the 1960s great traveler fascinated by the history of navigation Ancient Egypt and again in his research he resorted to an already proven method. To confirm new theories, he looked not only for historical sources; he reincarnated as an ancient man, merged in soul and body with those whom he wanted to know, and proved again and again that the possibilities of a person, no matter what era he lives in and no matter what people he belongs to, are truly limitless. In 1969, Thor Heyerdahl made a not entirely successful attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean on the papyrus boat "Ra", named after the ancient Egyptian sun god, but the following year he nevertheless carried out his plan. On the same boat "Ra-2" he covered the distance from Morocco to America.

In 1977, Thor Heyerdahl led an expedition to the Indian Ocean on the Tigris reed boat. In a letter sent to the United Nations, the travelers wrote: “We took a journey into the past to study the seaworthiness of a ship built according to ancient Sumerian models. But it was also a journey into the future, to show that people who strive for common survival can coexist peacefully even in the smallest space. We are eleven people representing countries with different political systems. Together we traveled more than six thousand kilometers on a small raft of fragile stems and ropes. In cramped conditions, in full mutual understanding and friendship, shoulder to shoulder, we fought storms and calms, constantly remaining faithful to the ideal of the UN: cooperation for the sake of common survival.”

Unfortunately, the peaceful coexistence of people of different nationalities and beliefs on a small boat did not reflect the situation in the world. A number of countries put all sorts of obstacles to the crew, many ports were closed to him, sometimes travelers were accompanied by an escort of warships and aircraft. As a result, the crew decided to stop the trip and burn the boat.

A member of the expeditions on the "Ra" and "Ra-2" and on the "Tigris" was our compatriot, the host of the television program "Travel Film Club" Yuri Aleksandrovich Senkevich (1937-2003). At that time he was a member of the Institute of Biomedical Problems, dealt with issues of space medicine and participated in expeditions as a doctor.

Norwegians honor the memory of their great compatriot. In Oslo, on the Bigdeyule peninsula, there is the Thor Heyerdahl Museum, the main exhibits of which are the Kon-Tiki raft and the Ra-2 papyrus boat, as well as a giant statue from Easter Island. Nearby is the Maritime Museum and the museum of the famous Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), and a little further away is the Viking ship museum. Thus, Thor Heyerdahl appears as a successor centuries old traditions Norwegian sailors.

Thor Heyerdahl's discoveries played a significant role in the development extreme tourism. Thanks to his travels, previously little-known lands are beginning to attract many fans. active rest and vivid impressions. However, not only discoveries and wanderings, but the very personality of Thor Heyerdahl had and continues to influence his contemporaries and descendants.