Editing Thor Heyerdahl (section)

==''Tigris''==
[[File:Tigris Model Pyramids of Guimar.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Model of the ''Tigris'' at the [[Pyramids of Güímar]], [[Tenerife]].]]
Heyerdahl built yet another [[reed boat]] in 1977, ''Tigris'', which was intended to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linked [[Mesopotamia]] with the [[Indus Valley civilization]] in what is now Pakistan and western India. Tigris was built in [[Al-Qurnah|Al Qurnah]] Iraq and sailed with its international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and made its way into the Red Sea.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pathé|first=British|title=Bahrain: Noted Explorer Thor Heyerdahl Prepares To Continue His Reed-Boat Voyage To India.|url=https://www.britishpathe.com/video/VLVA4EN09P9P62YNTHMVV64KAXCUK-BAHRAIN-NOTED-EXPLORER-THOR-HEYERDAHL-PREPARES-TO-CONTINUE-HIS/query/Reed|access-date=30 April 2021|website=www.britishpathe.com|language=en-GB}}</ref>

After about five months at sea and still remaining seaworthy, the ''Tigris'' was deliberately burnt in [[Djibouti]] on 3 April 1978 as a protest against the wars raging on every side in the [[Red Sea]] and [[Horn of Africa]]. In his Open Letter to the UN Secretary-General [[Kurt Waldheim]], Heyerdahl explained his reasons:<ref>Heyerdahl, Betty Blair, Bjornar Storfjell, [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai111_folder/111_articles/111_heyerdahl_tigris.html "25 Years Ago, Heyerdahl Burns Tigris Reed Ship to Protest War,"] in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:1 (Spring 2003), pp. 20–21.</ref>

<blockquote>Today we burn our proud ship&nbsp;... to protest against inhuman elements in the world of 1978&nbsp;... Now we are forced to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilized and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Elsewhere around us, brothers and neighbors are engaged in homicide with means made available to them by those who lead humanity on our joint road into the third millennium.

To the innocent masses in all industrialized countries, we direct our appeal. We must wake up to the insane reality of our time&nbsp;... We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.

Our planet is bigger than the reed bundles that have carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to run the same risks unless those of us still alive open our eyes and minds to the desperate need of intelligent collaboration to save ourselves and our common civilization from what we are about to convert into a sinking ship.</blockquote>

In the years that followed, Heyerdahl was often outspoken on issues of international peace and the environment.

The ''Tigris'' had an 11-man crew: Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), [[Norman Baker (explorer)|Norman Baker]] (US), [[Carlo Mauri]] (Italy), [[Yuri Senkevich]] (USSR), Germán Carrasco (Mexico), Hans Petter Bohn (Norway), [[Rashad Salim|Rashad Nazar Salim]] (Iraq), Norris Brock (US), Toru Suzuki (Japan), Detlef Soitzek (Germany), and Asbjørn Damhus (Denmark).