UNESCO World Heritage Committee Begins Review of Greece's Mount Olympus Nomination

The World Heritage Committee opens discussion Sunday in Busan, South Korea, on Greece’s nomination of Mount Olympus for mixed cultural and natural designation. The meeting runs through July 29. Mount Olympus rises 2,918 meters from near sea level and forms the mythological home of the 12 Olympian gods.

Ancient Greeks believed Zeus established his court on its highest peaks after defeating Cronus in a 10-year war. Greece placed the mountain on its Tentative List in 2014. The current file underwent preliminary review and 14 months of evaluation by advisory bodies including ICOMOS and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Evagelos Geroliolios, mayor of Dion-Olympus, said the mountain blends myth, history, biodiversity and cultural weight. “It is the place we grew up in,” he said. A site is believed to match the location Plutarch described in the second century for animal sacrifices to Zeus.

A chapel on Prophet Elias peak at 2,803 meters is considered the highest-altitude Orthodox chapel. The Enipeas Gorge contains a monastery founded in 1542, and a short walk leads to the Holy Cave of St. Dionysios, a cave chapel with a spring of holy water. The slopes support endemic flora and fauna.

Geroliolios added that global visitors come to experience the site. “We want to protect it,” he said. Inclusion would be “something very big that goes beyond not just local boundaries, but national boundaries.