In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl cemented his place in history by sailing a balsa-log raft, the Kon-Tiki, from Peru to Polynesia. Years later, he learned about the buoyant bardi reed used in ancient Iraq and wondered: Could the Sumerians have spread their culture across seas using ships made of this material? To explore this possibility, Heyerdahl launched The Tigris Expedition in November 1977.
The vessel, named Tigris, embarked on a four-month, 4,200-mile journey that began on Iraq’s legendary Tigris River. The expedition carried Heyerdahl and his crew through the Persian Gulf, across the Arabian Sea to Pakistan, and back again, ending near the entrance of the Red Sea.
Navigating the reed ship proved challenging. The crew faced anxious moments as they struggled to master its handling, often contending with unpredictable winds, rain, and a modern peril the Sumerians never knew—massive supertankers. In the Red Sea, they spent harrowing hours dodging these enormous vessels. However, their journey was ultimately halted by the geopolitical turmoil of the region, where wars between neighboring nations made further travel impossible.
Frustrated by the violence surrounding them, Heyerdahl and his crew chose to make a statement. In protest against the arms trade fueling these conflicts and to denounce “the stupidity of war,” they burned the Tigris. The expedition’s final moments were immortalized in haunting footage, showing the crew silently watching from shore as their ship was consumed by flames, a poignant symbol of their message to the world.