Footsteps

Giovanni Belzoni was a two-metre-high Italian strongman, who made three remarkable and controversial journeys up the Valley of the Nile between 1815 and 1819. He has been called a plunderer and a robber because of the magnificent collections of Ancient Egyptian artefacts he amassed and sent back to England. But Belzoni awoke in Europe an interest in Egyptology that has never died. David Drew travels to the tombs and temples rediscovered by Belzoni: the temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbel, the temples of Philae, the interior of the Pyramid of Chephren and, still the most spectacular in the whole of Egypt, the tomb of the Pharaoh Seti I - sites which sparked an international war of plunder.

The journey Alfred Maudslay was to make through the jungles of Central America transformed his life. Maudslay first saw the huge, strange overgrown pyramids in remote Guatemala in 1881. From then on he devoted his life to the search for the lost cities of the Maya. David Drew follows Maudslay's pioneering route, as he did by mule and canoe to the great cities of Tikal, Quirigua, and the still almost inaccessible Yaxchilan. Hacking through dense jungle, Maudslay was the first to reveal these magnificent sites.

"I rushed into the wonders of these immortal works; but it is totally impossible to describe the feelings of awe excited in the mind upon first beholding these stupendous excavations". John Seely , a young army officer travelled across western India in 1810 to visit the rock-cut temples of Ellora. The 300-mile trek on horseback from Bombay was often dangerous - wild animals, cholera, disabling heat and bandit tribes all posed a threat - but what he found more than made up for the rigours of his journey. David Drew follows in Seely's footsteps to rediscover Ellora's remarkable range of 34 cave temples hacked out of a mountainside - one of the most spectacular ancient sites in the East.

I was without protection in the midst of a desert where travellers had never before been seen; and a closer examination of these works would have excited suspicion that I was a magician. In the mountains of Arabia a secret valley conceals one of the most stunning and fabulous archaeological sites in the world. Legendary Petra, 'the rose-red city, half as old as time', was carved from the rock more than 2,000 years ago. In 1812 Burckhardt, a young Swiss explorer searching for the source of the River Niger in Africa, stumbled upon the incredible remains of this city, lost to western eyes since the time of the Crusades. David Drew tells the story of the rediscovery of this remarkable site and of the courage and determination shown by one man in conditions of great personal danger.

When Karl Mauch discovered massive stone ruins in the unknown heart of Africa, he was convinced that he had found Ophir, the legendary source of King Solomon's gold. The city must, he felt, have been built by Solomon's men. His ideas were to suit white colonists for generations. But, more recently, supported by the archaeological evidence, black nationalists have challenged these theories and rightly claimed 'Great Zimbabwe' as the work of their forefathers. David Drew treks north across the Limpopo River by jeep and on foot, retracing Mauch's solitary and dangerous route. He recounts how the explorer evaded death and capture to discover southern Africa's greatest stone city.

Suddenly I found myself confronted with the walls of ruined houses built of the finest quality of Inca stonework. Itfairly took my breath away. What could this place be? Hiram Bingham was a young American who, in 1911, set off into a remote, unexplored part of the Peruvian Andes. He was searching for the last refuge of the Incas, a city that was a treasure house of ancient riches and which, according to legend, the Spanish conquistadors had never found. After only a week, Bingham was to discover the spectacular ruins of Machu Picchu, perched on a forest-clad mountain top. It is the most romantic archaeological site in the world, but is it, in fact, the true lost city? David Drew follows Bingham's trail from Cusco, the ancient Inca capital, through mountain peaks to Machu Picchu and the jungles beyond and attempts to resolve the mystery.

David Drew retraces Charles Fellows 's journey of discovery through Turkey. This wealthy young Englishman with a passion for classical Greek art and architecture crossed the country in 1838 in search of the lost cities of the ancient world - cities referred to in ancient literature but never before seen by Europeans. He was to discover 13 spectacular sites in all.

Reginald Le May had many memories to console him in his retirement in Tunbridge Wells in the 1960s. Foremost among them was a pioneering journey he had made in 1924 to one of the most magical ancient sites in the Far East - Si Satchanalai , buried in the forests of northern Thailand. Little known even today, it is a city of ruined temples and elegant spires, of giant figures of the Buddha, and the site of hundreds of ancient pottery kilns. It inspired Le May, who became the first man to open the eyes of the west to the wonders of ancient Thailand. From Bangkok, David Drew traces Le May's arduous and eccentric journey by train, bicycle and elephant. The trail leads on to the present day, to the work of modern archaeologists and to ancient shipwrecks off Thailand's coast.

Richard Wetherill was a cowboy rancher in the American south west. In 1888, while searching for strays in the bleak canyons of the Mesa Verde, he and his brothers stumbled upon the extraordinary cliff dwellings of the ancient Indians - entire stone villages sheltered by giant rock overhangs, never before seen by white men. For Richard, it was the start of a new career. From the wilderness areas of Utah to the plains of New Mexico, the heights of Colorado to the canyons of Arizona, the Wetherill wagons searched to find the lost culture of the Anasazi Indians. But despite Richard's serious attempts as an archaeologist, he was accused by the Federal Government of pothunting and barred from further work. In the last programme of the series David Drew follows in Richard Wetherill 's footsteps and attempts to unravel the mystery that surrounds his death.