Lost cities (30min)

Sandi Toksvig -- solicitor, novelist, traveller, raconteur -- is joined by three guests this week who have been searching for lost cities, civilisations and mythical utopias: maritime archaeologist Jonathan Cole, who is excavating the ancient ports of Egypt; writer Kevin Rushby, who seeks to locate the descendants of the 16c pirates who carved kingdoms for themselves in the remote jungles of northeast Madagascar; and explorer Tahir Shah, who is exploring for lost Inca cities in Peru.

Cole is research co-ordinator for the Oxford Maritime Archaeological Institute. He dives as part of a multinational team for underwater excavations at the ancient port at Alexandria and two sites in Aboukir Bay and Heraclion. Heraclion is a city under water and in Aboukir Bay is a site covering 110 square kilometres where there are temples and shipwrecks in the ports which were in use from 800 BC to AD 8.

Rushby Kevin began his quest for pirate utopia's in Durban, where he got passage aboard a container ship that which took him to Mozambique, and then he sailed up the African coast. He visited the Comoros Islands and Madagascar, where he snorkelled and found the remains of Captain Kidd's ship. His latest book is Hunting Pirate Heaven.

Shah was born into a respected Afghan family and educated in England. He has lived in Japan, India, the USA and East Africa, and his books include The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and In Search Of King Solomon's Mines. His latest book, House Of The Tiger King, is about his four-month quest in Peru to find a lost Inca city.