Thor Heyerdahl

Azerbaijan has been twice the site of undertaken visits of a norwegian archaeologist, traveller and writer — Thor Heyerdahl (1914 – 2002) — who is famous throughout the world for his works in the area of history and for his fiction books such as “Kon-Tiki” of 1948, “Aku-Aku” of 1957, “Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature” of 1974. The Gobustan expedition played an important part in the formation of his personality considered as one of the most extraordinary in the XX century.

Icy arms of the river, which was located not so far from the wooden house in native Larvik, engulfed a drowning boy. The boy was rescued from immersing in water by his mates who looked at him aghast : they knew fully that Thor had a fear of water. Apparently, he had decided to demonstrate to everyone that he hadn’t.  Thor Heyerdahl would have to prove things totally different than others were telling him: the well-known Kon-Tiki expedition on a balsawood raft, the theory of Easter Island statues, his belief that peoples who inhabited America relocate to Polynesia, as well as quite interesting conclusions of Herr Heyerdahl about hypothesis that Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and other peoples of frosty Scandinavia are descendants of Udins  — nation reside in Nidj, a mountain village (northern part of Azerbaijan), and belongs to the members of  Nakh-Dagestanian ethnic group, —  all of his ideas repeatedly were subjected to the condemnation.

These theories were based on dubious notions, in other words, on minds not supported by scientific data and had been met quite unfavourably by other scientists, historians and researchers with submissions full of animosity and grudge. Thor Heyerdahl had drawn the connection between names of geographical objects and terms from Norwegian mythology and other Scandinavian motifs and thus convinced an origin story of one or the other unit of investigation which interested him.

In 1994 Thor Heyerdahl visited Gobustan  — a diamond which hadn’t been polished by any foreign archaeologist at that time —  and plunged into exploration of innumerable moles-petroglyphs on the body of ancient seat of a caveman. Herr Heyerdahl was full of amazement and was astonished when he found the imagery on the Gobustan rocks — it was a boat with the depiction of sun near its nose. This case made him ventured a theory about resettlement of ancestors of  Vikings from the territory of Azerbaijan to the northwest.

Although the ideas and thoughts pursued by Thor Heyerdahl which were publicly disclosed with severe criticism by investigators who worked in the area of anthropology, palaeontology and other related sciences, he could make an invaluable contribution to the development of  present-day archaeology, wrote an enormous amount of stories full of  biographical inserts based on his expeditions, trips and researches won the hearts of more than fifty billions readers all over the world.

And if You, dear reader, took in the travel spirit and would like to feel a breathtaking atmosphere of enigmatic Gobustan and discover the secrets of countless cave paintings, then we could become Your faithful guide between two worlds: present-day and distant past. And to make the will come true You can learn about the most sought after tour in Azerbaijan named “Gobustan+Absheron”.

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Tags: Azerbaijan , Thor Heyerdahl , Norwegian archaeologist , Kon Tiki , Scandinavian , Gobustan , group tour , Cave Paintings