Kon-Tiki Museum

In 1947, Heyerdahl did the unimaginable and crossed the Pacific Ocean on a handmade balsawood raft, named Kon-Tiki, to test his theory that it was possible to travel by raft from South America to the Polynesian Islands. Although not a single scholar believed it would work, Heyerdahl became one of the first archaeologists to test his own theory – and successfully so. He was told the raft would sink due to the porous nature of the balsawood, and no one had attempted this journey in several hundred years. “The story of Thor Heyerdahl and Kon-Tiki is in many ways the story of David and Goliath,” says head of communication at the Kon-Tiki Museum, Ulrikke Thea Berg.