7 UNESCO Sites Sharing the Same Criteria Count, Worldwide

By Travelog Editorial Team · Updated August 10, 2026

Seven Travelog destinations were each recognized under exactly four UNESCO criteria: Grand Canyon and Great Smoky Mountains (both natural, USA), Istanbul and Cappadocia (Turkey), Studenica (Serbia), Kotor (Montenegro), and Ohrid (North Macedonia). The count matches; the specific criteria letters mostly don't.

Seven Travelog destinations share a UNESCO criteria count, four, across four continents. That's a genuinely different comparison than sharing a listing year: this page groups sites by how many separate reasons UNESCO cited, not when. Worth stating plainly: sharing a count doesn't mean sharing the same four specific criteria letters, natural sites and cultural sites draw from entirely separate criteria lists.

The Seven, Side by Side

Site	Country	Criteria	Type
Grand Canyon	USA	(vii), (viii), (ix), (x)	Natural
Great Smoky Mountains	USA	(vii), (viii), (ix), (x)	Natural
Istanbul	Turkey	Four criteria (serial listing)	Cultural
Cappadocia	Turkey	Four criteria	Mixed
Studenica	Serbia	(i), (ii), (iv), (vi)	Cultural
Kotor	Montenegro	(i) through (iv)	Cultural
Ohrid	North Macedonia	(i), (iii), (iv), (vii)	Mixed

The One Real Exact Match

Grand Canyon and Great Smoky Mountains don't just share a count, they share the identical four criteria letters, (vii) through (x), the standard natural-recognition cluster for exceptional scenery, ecology, and geology. That's the one genuine letter-for-letter match on this list; every other pairing here shares a count without sharing the specific letters.

Studenica's Genuinely Rare Combination

Studenica's own citation calls its four-criteria recognition "a genuinely rare four-criteria recognition" in its own right, founded in the late 12th century by Stevan Nemanja, the actual historical founder of the medieval Serbian state, not a mythologized figure. It remains the largest and richest of Serbia's Orthodox monasteries.

What This Means for Planning a Trip

A shared criteria count is a real, checkable fact, but it's a narrower claim than it might sound: two US national parks share an identical four-letter signature, while the other five sites on this list arrived at "four" through entirely different combinations of natural and cultural reasoning.

Plan my trip -- $9 →

Related Reading

• Directory -- every comparison page in this collection.
• Every US UNESCO World Heritage Site Travelog Covers, in Order -- Grand Canyon and Great Smoky Mountains in their full US context.
• The Four Cities That Share Rome's Exact UNESCO Criteria Signature -- the site's other criteria-letter-exact comparison, at five criteria instead of four.