Queen Mathilde and Crown Princess Elisabeth begin a three-day official visit to Egypt today (Tuesday 14 March). Their visit follows the same itinerary as that followed by the late Queen Elisabeth and the then Crown Prince Leopold a century ago in 1923.
On the 19 February 1923 Queen Elisabeth visited the then recently discovered tomb of Tutankhamun. On Wednesday a visit to the tomb will form one of the highlights of the Queen and Crown Princess of the Belgians’ 2023 official visit to Egypt.
The royal visit to Egypt is intended as a tribute to the late Queen Elisabeth after whom Crown Princess Elisabeth is called. Queen Elisabeth was Crown Princess Elisabeth’s great-great grandmother. The wife of King Albert I had a passion for Egyptology. Her visits to Egypt in 1911, 1923 and 1930 were import in the promotion of the study of ancient Egypt here in Belgium.
“The right moment to go”
The Royal Palace says that the moment is right for the Belgian Royals to visit Egypt as several important anniversaries are being celebrated this year. 2023 is the 200th anniversary of the deciphering of hieroglyphics by the French scholar Jean-François Champollion, the 125th anniversary of the start of the study of ancient Egypt here in Belgium, the 100th anniversary of the setting up of the Queen Elisabeth Egyptological Society and the 75th anniversary of the death of the renowned Belgian Egyptologist Jean Capart, who was a friend of Queen Elisabeth.
Exhibition about the late Queen in Cairo
Queen Mathilde and Crown Princess Elisabeth will attend the opening of an exhibition about Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians and Belgian Egyptology. They will also visit sites in Egypt where archeologists from Belgian universities are currently working.
The visit to Egypt is Crown Princess Elisabeth’s second official visit abroad. In 2019 she took part in Queen Mathilde’s UNICEF mission to Kenya. Crown Princess Elisabeth is curtly 21 years old, the same age that here great grandfather Leopold III was when, as Crown Prince Leopold, he accompanied his mother on an official visit to Egypt 100 years ago.