No one, young or old, who thrills to tales of brave and daring men should miss the experience of reading Kon-Tiki. In this new, specially designed edition, the text has been expertly edited for quicker reading—but without any loss of essential material or change of style. Scores of photographs, drawings, charts and diagrams—many hitherto unpublished and over 70 in color—add breathtaking reality to the book.

On a primitive raft which they made themselves, and named Kon-Tiki in honor of a legendary sun-king of the Incas, Thor Heyerdahl and five companions deliberately risked their lives to show that the ancient Peruvians could have voyaged 4300 miles across the Pacific to Polynesia on similar craft. Experienced sailors and scientists unanimously predicted disaster. The raft would be destroyed in the first storm, they said; it would come to pieces or become water-logged and sink; the men would drown or die of thirst and starvation. 

But Heyerdahl held firmly to his belief, supported by years of scientific research, that the Indians of Peru had made such voyages successfully in the past. He was determined to duplicate their feat—not as a mere stunt, but as a scientific test of his theory.

For 101 days wind and currents carried the Kon-Tiki westward, through storms and calms. The men learned to catch sharks barehanded—to use plankton as food—encountered the monstrous and rare whale shark—and were the first ever to see a live snake mackerel. The raft's spectacular crash-landing on a coral island was the perfect climax that ended this incredible voyage. 

"One of the great adventures of our time," said Life magazine in 1947 about Thor Heyerdahl's amazing feat cross the Pacific Ocean on a raft of balsa logs. Today that statement is still unchallenged. For fearlessness and daring, as well as the scientific value of its results, the Kon-Tiki Expedition is unique among 20th-century stories of adventure. It is a true classic that has more breathless excitement and drama than a work of fiction. 

From the dust jacket