Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Expedition

* Kon-Tiki is Thor Heyerdahl’s account of his 101-day, 4,300-mile journey (with five friends) across the Pacific on a balsawood raft in 1947.

* The purpose of the voyage was to prove Heyerdahl’s theory that it would have been possible for people from South America to get to and settle on Easter Island in pre-Columbian times. ( Today, despite some DNA evidence to the contrary, most anthropologists still favor the idea that the original settlers came from eastern Polynesia.)

* The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca sun god. The original is now on display in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo.

* It was supplied with 275 gallons of drinking water in 56 water cans, 200 coconuts, fruit, sweet potatoes and other root vegetables. They had some field rations as well, and they caught lots of fish.

* Since Heyerdahl’s crossing in 1947, there have been at least a half-dozen raft expeditions from Peru to Polynesia.