World-famous explorer passes away

He was Norway’s National and International hero

The world lost one of its most famous researchers of all times Thor Heyerdahl, who died on April 18.

A book of condolences was opened in the Norwegian embassy in Baku following the death of the renowned researcher, traveler and scientist Thor Heyerdahl, who passed away on April 18 at the age of 87. Those willing to express their sympathy can attend the embassy from April 22 to 26.

"When Thor Heyerdahl passed away, Norway lost an original and spectacular researcher, discoverer and adventurer. After finishing his studies in ethnography and zoology, he creatively journeyed out into the field in order to put to test his ideas about prehistoric cultural interaction and the spread of different cultures", says an obituary issued by Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik on behalf of the government.

In 1947 Heyerdahl sought to prove with the Kon-Tuki balsa fleet that the Polynesian Islands could have been populated by people from South America. Setting out with the reed boats Ra I and Ra II in 1969 and 1970 he endeavored to demonstrate early cultural contacts between North Africa and America. In 1977 and 1978 with the papyrus boat Tigris he tried to show early migration of cultures in the inner waters of the Indian Ocean.

The Maldives, Peru and The Canary Islands are other locations where Heyerdahl conducted archeological and cultural research. In the last few years he also worked on what he saw as possible links between Norse culture and what is now Azerbaijan.

"In Thor Heyerdahl we have lost a countryman who for more than fifty years was one of the well-known Norwegians all over the world. He was the happy boy from the Norwegian town of Lavrik who conquered the world without ever forgetting where he came from", according to the obituary.

T. Heyerdahl had many times visited Azerbaijan, a country he was paying much attention and interest to. Exploring the rock inscriptions in Gobustan, he was trying to document close relations between the two nations.

T. Heyerdahl was the great researcher and traveler of not just Norway, but the whole world. He will eternally live in memories as someone who was doing his best to make nations and peoples closer.

The world-renowned explorer and archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl was born in 1914, in Larvik, Norway. From his earliest days, he was an enthusiastic nature lover, and was inspired by his mother (who was head of the local museum) to take an interest in zoology and nature. Mr. Heyerdahl later enrolled at the University of Oslo, where he specialized in zoology and geography. In 1936 he made his first journey with his wife to the island of Fatuhiva in the Marquesan archipelago in the Pacific, to study the flora and fauna of this remote island. His first scientific expedition was to Polynesia in 1937-1938.