Nehaveigur

In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl led an expedition to cross the Pacific on a raft built from balsa wood in the style of the ancient Incas.

Believe, even if it’s in a weak theory, moves mountains. While building his raft, Heyerdahl was given many good reasons that his expedition would fail. Experienced sailors told him that a vessel like his would never make it across the ocean. But Heyerdahl “knew” none of those warnings were valid, since it had been done before. The reason for him attempting to cross the Pacific on his raft was to prove that it had been done before. He believed that the islands of Polynesia had been settled from South America. He was so confident that he and his fellow explorers started their journey without having tested their Inca raft even once.

We now know that Heyerdahl was wrong to presume that Polynesia was settled from South America. There was a little migration in that direction around the year 1200 that can be detected using modern genetics, but not enough to vindicate Heyerdahl in any meaningful way. The cultural evidence that inspired Heyerdahl, such as the appearance of Incan god Kon-tiki in Polynesia, also remains speculative. Simulations suggest that without knowing exactly where to navigate to, the chances of hitting any of the Polynesian islands by chance when sailing from South America is relatively low.

None of this matters much when reading Kon-Tiki, which deserves its reputation as one of the best adventure books ever written.