The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was born on 16 November 1945. UNESCO has 195 Members and 8 Associate Members and is governed by the General Conference and the Executive Board. The Secretariat, headed by the Director-General, implements the decisions of these two bodies. The Organization has more than 50 field offices around the world and its headquarters are located in Paris.
UNESCO’s mission is to contribute to the building of a culture of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development, and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication, and information.
UNESCO works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures, and peoples, based on respect for commonly shared values. It is through this dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect, and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCO’s mission and activities.
Greece joined UNESCO as a member on 04 November 1946. There are currently 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Greece and 16 of these are inscribed based on "cultural" criteria, while the remaining two (Mount Athos, Meteora) are inscribed for meeting both "cultural" and "natural" criteria. Five of the sites are located on islands, one is distributed between the islands and the mainland, with the remaining 12 exclusively on the mainland. The first site to be inscribed was the Temple of Apollo at Bassae in 1986, the most recent is the Philippi, inscribed in 2016. There are an additional 14 sites on the tentative list.
| Name | Location | Date |
| Acropolis, Athens | Athens, Attica | 5th century BC |
| The archeological site of Aigai (Vergina) | Imathia, Central Macedonia | 1st millennium BC |
| The archeological site of Delphi | Phocis, Central Greece | 8th century BC |
| The archeological site of Mystras | Laconia, Peloponnese | 13th century AD |
| The archeological site of Olympia | Elis, West Greece | 10th century BC |
| The archeological site of Mycenae and Tiryns | Argolis, Peloponnese | 15th century BC |
| The archeological site of Delos | Cyclades, South Aegean | 7th century BC |
| Historic Centre with the Monastery of St John | Patmos, South Aegean | 10th century |
| Medieval City of Rhodes | Rhodes, South Aegean | |
| Monasteries of Daphni, Hosios Loukas, and Nea Moni of Chios | Hosios Loukas: Distomo, Boeotia Daphni Monastery: Chaidari, Attica Nea Moni: Chios, North Aegean |
11th and 12th centuries |
| Old Town of Corfu | Corfu, Ionian Islands | 8th century BC |
| Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki | Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia | 315 B.C. |
| Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos | Samos, North Aegean | 3rd millennium B.C. |
| Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus | Epidaurus, Peloponnese | 4th century |
| Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae | Bassae, Messenia, Peloponnese | 5th century B.C. |
| The Meteora | near Kalabaka, Thessaly | |
| Mount Athos | Autonomous Monastic State of the Holy Mountain | |
| Philippi | Philippi, Kavala, Eastern Macedonia | 4th century B.C. - 14th century A.D. |
To learn more about all UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Greece, download our free ebook, in user-friendly ePub format. ePub format books can be opened on any smartphone or desktop computer with the free Adobe Digital Editions, as well as on many other devices, using apps such as Books for Apple devices.
