there are currently 18 unesco world heritage sites in greece. of these, 16 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. this 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.