WHY GREECE IS A FORBIDDEN LAND FOR BRITISH MONARCH?
* Queen Elizabeth-II is
probably the most well traveled monarch ever.
* She has been to 116
countries on official state visits as Queen. * But she has not gone to Greece. Why?
* The Queen has traveled from the tiny island nation of Tuvalu in the Pacific, to Russia, China, Chile, Ghana, Australia and almost everywhere in between.
* So it may seem surprising that she has never made the
relatively short hop over to the birthplace of her husband, Philip, the
Duke of Edinburgh.
* Prince Philip is a "Greek prince," according to royal historian Hugo Vickers, so it is an "interesting" omission.
* The reason he believes, is because Prince Philip doesn't like Greece, because they put his
father [Prince Andrew] on trial, and he might have been executed.
* In 1922, they all had to flee. Prince Philip was a baby at the time and rarely returned.
* It is not completely true that the Queen has never been to
Greece - she did go there at the invitation of King Paul, Prince
Philip's cousin, in 1950, but that was before she became Queen.
* In 1963 King Paul also came to Britain on a state visit but
it was hugely controversial because Greece held a number
of political prisoners at the time.
* Soon after that visit, King Paul died. His successor, King
Constantine - Prince Philip's first cousin once removed - was ousted
when the monarchy was abolished in 1973.
Former Greek King Constantine attended the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton
He lives in London, still considers himself king, and has a
close personal relationship with the Queen.
* All of this has made things difficult. Perhaps the Queen has never been invited by the Greek
president to make a state visit.
* Prince Philip did go to Athens to visit his mother before she moved
to London in the 1960s - but he would travel on his own, not as a state representative.
* Israel is another notable omission from the Queen's list of state visits.
* Security is a major factor in this case due to diplomatic sensitivity over visiting Jerusalem.
Israel regards Jerusalem as the capital, but it is not recognized as
such by Western nations, who base their embassies in Tel Aviv instead.
* Egypt is a surprise omission from the Queen's travel
itinerary, he adds, given its influence in the region, and its potential
for business with Britain.
* The Queen has made it to every single nation in the Commonwealth, except two of the more recent entrants, Rwanda and Cameroon. 
