LITOCHORO — The World Heritage Committee will meet in Busan, South Korea, from Sunday through July 29, 2026. The committee will consider the nomination of Greece’s Mount Olympus as a UNESCO Heritage site.

A draft of the Busan meeting’s agenda indicates the committee will refer the Olympus nomination back to Greece and request further details. Greece nominated Olympus for UNESCO Heritage status as a mixed cultural and natural site.

Greece began the process to have Olympus recognized as a Heritage site in 2014 by inscribing it on its Tentative List. The UNESCO nomination process includes evaluation over 14 months by advisory bodies including the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Representatives of 21 countries vote on nominated sites during the Heritage Committee’s annual meeting. Much of Olympus was designated a national park decades ago.

Olympus rises to 2,918 meters (9,573 feet) from a base practically at sea level. The slopes of Olympus host flora and fauna, including endemic species.

Olympus is the mythological home of ancient Greece’s 12 Olympian gods. In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus established his court on Olympus after overthrowing his father, Cronus, in a 10-year war that ended the reign of the Titans.

Excavations on one of Olympus’s lower peaks have uncovered an open-air sanctuary with finds dating to the Hellenistic period (323 B.C. to 30 B.C.). Greece’s UNESCO nomination states the sanctuary is believed to be the one mentioned by Plutarch in the 2nd century, who wrote of processions to one of Olympus’s peaks for animal sacrifices to Zeus.

A chapel on the peak of Prophet Elias at 2,803 meters is believed to be the highest altitude chapel in the Christian Orthodox world. The Enipeas Gorge on Olympus holds the remains of a monastery founded in 1542.

The Holy Cave of St. Dionysios is a chapel built into a cave on Olympus from where a small spring flows, believed to carry holy water. A photo shows a visitor walking up to a chapel at the Holy Cave of St. Dionysios on Olympus in northern Greece on July 14, 2026.

"Olympus is our life. It is the place we grew up in. It is the place we see every day, but at the same time, it is also a place which carries with it myth, history, biodiversity, extraordinary beauty, and a very great cultural weight," said Evagelos Geroliolios, mayor of Dion-Olympus.

"It is a place we love. It is a place that many people from all over the world visit to see, to live, to experience. We want to protect it. Its inclusion on UNESCO’s list would be something very big that goes beyond not just local boundaries, but national boundaries. It is something that concerns the entire world. It is very important."

"Inclusion on the World Heritage list places some greater obligations on our part to protect this environment, Geroliolios said. Babis Marinidis is the president of the Alpine Club of Litochoro. How many people can this mountain, this ecosystem, bear? asked Marinidis. He stated that visitors regularly ignore no swimming" or "no camping" signs on Olympus.

"I used to be against that. But now with so many people, I believe some limit must be imposed," he said. Local authorities are considering imposing entrance fees and registering visitor numbers for Olympus.