Thor Heyerdahl

Written by students at school 36, Kiev

The tradition of glorious Norwegian travellers was carried on by an ethnographer, Thor Heyerdahl, whose writings cane be considered to be amongst the classics. Among them are "Travelling to Kon -Tiki", "Aky -Aky", "The art of Island Paskhi" and others. His books have not only cognitive significance: " The world has become so small, - he writes, - that today we are all neighbours. Friends can reach each other today in a few hours, but enemies, unfortunately, even faster. Today one can't be isolated from the world around and its influence".

Ukraine and Norway are neighbours speaking different languages and a study of history helps each to understand better the past and the present of the other.

Thor Heyerdal is a famous Norwegian scientist, traveller, explorer and seafarer. He devotes himself thoroughly to the problems of the Earth and its peoples. He can be called an ethnographer. He is not indifferent to the problems of ecology too. He is 82 years old now. He lives permanently on the island of Tenerife, not only because it's nice to live there but also because he is creating a national park with a museum in it.

Heyerdahl is an authority in the science of human migration. Having been in Polynesia, he was interested in how these islands were populated from the East because of the winds' and currents' direction.

When the Second World War began he was in Canada. He had two children by that time. He worked as a dustman. Sometimes he had no work at all. Heyerdahl received an invitation to England and after some preparation he took part in the liberation of Kirkenes. After the War Thor continued his scientific investigations. As a result he came to the conclusion that Polynesian islands were settled not from the East, as the majority of scientists thought, but from the coast of South America. In order to prove this he made a voyage, with six companions, from Peru to Polynesia. The research expedition was a great success. Thor published a book about it with "Oscar". He became a very famous and popular person.
Created by him, the museum "Kon -Tiki" in Oslo is still being operated nowadays.
As a scientist Thor Heyerdahl is sure that the oceans serve as a natural means of transport, which helped people to move around the world.

Studying the life of American Indians he decided to seek the tracks of their ancient civilisation and culture in some regions of the Pacific Ocean. First of all he went to the Galapagos Island where he found out a lot of ceramic things which were left by American Indians. He also investigated the island Paskhi.

In order to prove one could make sea voyages in papyrus boats he carried out another of his famous experiment. Thor Heyerdahl built a papyrus boat, which was called "Ra" and successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Not by accident he gathered an international crew for this expedition.
Thus he demonstrated the purpose of all nations of the Earth - to save and to cherish nature, culture, peace.

Thor Heyerdahl proved that the ancients also sailed in boats made of rush. His next boat "Tigris" was made of rush. He sailed in the Indian Ocean for five months. Its crew was also international.
Ukraine and Norway also long for peace, freedom, justice and humanity.

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