Ra Expeditions

by Thor Heyerdahl

Book Overview

Ra is the story of Heyerdahl's voyage from North Africa to South America in a 45 ft papyrus boat modelled on those depicted in the pharoah's wall paintings. A violent storm ended the first expedition... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451051211
• ISBN13: 9780451051219
• Release Date: August 1972
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An outstanding account of two outstanding feats.

Thor Heyerdahl's double achievement of the Kon Tiki and Ra expeditions are nothing short of incredible. In the Kon Tiki he set out to prove how the Pacific Islands had been originally populated. He succeeded. For Ra, he constructed a craft of local papyrus reeds and set out to show how ancient Egyptians reached the Americas thousands of years before Columbus. He succeeded again. Whilst a plethora of so-called experts scoffed at the very notion - claiming any such craft would simply disintegrate in anything more than a calm sea, Heyerdahl and his 6 man crew set sail from North Africa. After 2,700 miles they were eventually battered into submission by a great storm and had to abandon their craft. Within a year, however, they were back with Ra II and made the crossing from Morocco to Barbados in 57 days. The distance - a mere 3,270 miles. Now we know why Pyramids are also found in Central and Southern America... Heyerdahl's achievements rank alongside being the first man on the moon or the first to climb Everest - except that he has two such credits to his name. In this book, his latter adventure is recorded in the most interesting, yet factual way, and is a joy to read. NM

Maybe best adventure/anthropology book ever?

This book could be the best adventure book I have ever read and best anthropology book ever. I could not put this book down. How could I have gone 36 years without reading it. I read Kon Tiki 20 years ago and loved that as well. This ranks up there with Bryson and Cahill for adventure/history writing.

Paper boats - not just in your bath tub

After his sailing from South America to Easter Island Thor has decided (after his visit to the pyramids in Egypt, where he saw the papyrus boats and after he saw that there were some Egyptian coins and pottery in South America) to make a papyrus boat and sail over Atlantic. He first employed two workers from Chad, where they were seen to make papyrus boats for lakes. They have sailed from egypt but the boat didn't manage to reach the American coast due to construction failure (as it was seen later, the boat was too heavy and they forgot to include the binding rope). Second attempt was made afterwards, this time the builders were Indians and they have constructed lighter boat. This one lasted till they reached American shore and has proven the theory that if Pharaoh has ordered to sail to America, the task could be achieved thanks to knowledge of ocean streams (and they had that knowledge for sure). We won't deprive Columbus for his "discovery" of America for quite some time. After all, he was the first after many years who sailed there where almost forgotten kings once made trade, allies and foes. we are slightly realizing that our ancestors weren't so barbaric and stupid as we thought of them, they were in some views even some steps ahead of us. Can we accept this fact or not?

Ra An Absolute Roar

Forget the sea crossing! This book is a humdinger just for its descriptions of secluded societies in Africa. Islands that move, secluded monasteries, this book has it all. The account of the crossing is great, but doesn't quite live up to Kon-Tiki. Heyerdahl's style has improved a lot, and this book never slows down. I didn't think this book would be funny, but the boatmakers are a hernia waiting to happen. Great Stuff. Jeremy Swanson