Oslo: Kon-Tiki Museum: Ra II Raft
n 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus and attempted to cross the Atlantic from Morocco in Africa. Based on drawings and models from ancient Egypt, the first boat, named Ra, was constructed by boat builders from Lake Chad in the Republic of Chad using reed obtained from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and launched into the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Morocco. After a number of weeks, Ra took on water after its crew made modifications to the vessel that caused it to sag and break apart. The ship was abandoned and the following year, another similar vessel, Ra II was built by boatmen from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and likewise set sail across the Atlantic from Morocco, this time with great success. The boat reached Barbados, thus demonstrating that mariners could have made trans-Atlantic voyages by sailing with the Canary Current. While the purpose of the Ra voyages was merely to prove the seaworthiness of ancient vessels constructed of buoyant reeds, others, notably The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), have cited the success of the Ra II expedition as evidence that Egyptian mariners could have journeyed, by design or happenstance, to the New World in prehistoric times.
Size: 5120px × 3413px
Photo credit: © Aivar Mikko / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 2, barbados, bygdoy, capital, city, heyerdahl, horizontal, kon, kon-tiki, morocco, museum, norway, oslo, papyrus, ra, ra-2, ra2, raft, sail, sailing, ship, thor, tiki, town
