The famous Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl this time invites readers to go into the depths of history, to the era of the Great Migration. And this distant and still unexplored time comes to life in all its diversity on the pages of the book... King Mithridates of Pontus, who did not submit to Rome, committed suicide, and this became a huge shock for the entire Ancient World. Not wanting to become Roman subjects, many freedom-loving tribes rushed to the North, to the steppes, to India and China. In the Ancient World there were no borders, nations had not yet formed, but each people had its own traditions, its own gods... Crafts and agriculture developed, trade flourished. The reader will learn how the path “from the Varangians to the Greeks” arose, why fair-haired, blue-eyed people lived in China, what “shell money” from the Maldives is, why many tales of the Caucasian peoples are so similar to the Scandinavian sagas, who the aces were, where the Great Silk War took place way. The story about all this is structured in the form of a conversation between Thor Heyerdahl and his friend, the historian and archaeologist Per Lillieström. Having carefully studied the royal sagas of the Scandinavian skald Snorri Sturluson, they seemed to hear his hint that his myths and sagas are a prototype of reality. And believing Snorri, they were not mistaken. Mythical material, intertwined with real historical facts, captivates and excites.