Subscribe to Outside Magazine
advertisement
Survival Guru

Today's Question
What is the best way to get water if I'm lost in the desert? answer

What's the most reliable tool for starting fires? answer

Greasy Rider

Today's Question
What one equipment change can I make in my home to reduce my water usage most? answer

Why do you drive a grease-powered car, and should I do it too? answer

Videos Ask Dave
  • What kind of dog will make me look manlier? answer
  • Is there a sport that safely combines my twin passions for guns and kayaks? answer
  • How come most of the world's cultures enjoy eating goat, but Americans don't? answer

Online Favorites

Special Issues

Photo Galleries
share this article del.icio.us DIGG Facebook StumbleUpon

Outside Magazine July 2002

Dispatches: Memoriam
The Last Horizon
Scientists never bought his theories, but Thor Heyerdahl's prove-it-yourself adventures captivated the world
By Brad Wetzler


Heyerdahl in 1969, at the launch of his papyrus-reed raft RA in Morocco (Bettmann/Corbis)
FIVE-ELEVEN, BLOND, PERPETUALLY TAN, and full of scholarly exuberance, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl was a charismatic, controversial figure, and when he died of a brain tumor on April 18 at 87, a chapter in the history of adventure ended. Heyerdahl launched a revolution in experimental archaeology, a discipline that aims to learn about ancient cultures by reconstructing their technologies and retracing their footsteps. In 1947, Heyerdahl, then 32, was determined to prove that ancient South Americans could have made contact with Polynesia, so he sailed from Peru to the Pacific island of Raroia for 101 days on a 45-foot balsa-wood raft he dubbed Kon-Tiki.

Though in recent years some of Heyerdahl's theories have been resurrected by anthropologists, his subversive ideas initially earned him a reputation among scientists as a crackpot. But Thor the Unflappable continued launching one dangerous experiment after another. In 1969, he tried sailing across the Atlantic in a papyrus-reed boat he named the Ra. The boat disintegrated, but the following year Ra II completed the journey in 57 days. In 1978, he attempted to link ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indus Valley cultures by sailing down the Tigris River to the Red Sea via Pakistan aboard a reed vessel called Tigris. In his later years, Heyerdahl began concentrating on prehistoric sites on Easter Island and step pyramids on the Canary Islands.

Over the years, adventurers such a famed polar explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes have been inspired by Heyerdahl's bold exploits. "I don't think I've had an adventure where Thor Heyerdahl has not come up in conversation or in mind," says 30-year-old Canadian Colin Angus, who has completed pioneering source-to-sea descents on the Amazon and Yenisey rivers. "Heyerdahl showed us that there are unique and fascinating adventures to be had that have nothing to do with being first or fastest."