A unique honey is hidden in a cave in Türkiye. It’s called “Peri Balı”, a nectar worth €5,000 per kilo harvested only by professional mountaineers.
In the rugged mountains of north-eastern Turkey, inside a cave located on an 1800 meter mountain there is a unique honey in the world: the Fairy Honey. It is not the beginning of a fairy tale, but the true story of a honey worth several thousand euros per kilogram.
The discovery of fairy honey
The history of Peri Balı (this is the name of Fairy Honey in Turkish) began in 2009, when the Turkish beekeeper Günay Gündüzfollowing some local legends, discovered a natural hive inside a cave in the mountains Sarıçayırin the province of Artvin (in the north-east of Türkiye), within which he found approx 18kg of honey.
In fact, local tradition has it that the use of this honey dates back to archaic times Kingdom of Colchiswhich had one of the areas of greatest development precisely in the north-eastern area of present-day Türkiye.
His discovery (or “rediscovery”) occurred when Gündüz walking around the mountain he noticed an unusually large number of bees entering and exiting a crack in a rock face. Intrigued, he decided to investigate.
Not being a mountaineer, he asked for the help of professional climbers to lower yourself into the cavity. On the steep internal walls of the cave there were honeycombs (groupings of bee cells) which contained approximately 18 kilograms of crystallized honeywhich was formed directly on the rock, without any human intervention.
Its unique properties
Gündüz sent samples to a specialized laboratory, which confirmed the exceptional nature of the product, which was estimated to have about 7 years.
Honey is produced by “Apis mellifera caucasica”an ancient subspecies of Caucasian bee, now endangered, which is extremely resistant to the harsh climatic conditions of the region.
Bees build honeycombs in very narrow rocky spaces. Production is extremely limited and varies every year: we are talking about quantities ranging from 10-12kg up to a maximum of 20kg per year.
Also, the underground environment isolates honey from external pollution causing it to mature and crystallize on the walls of the cave. In this way it absorbs minerals from the rock, a process that enriches it and gives it a much denser consistency than classic honey.
The collection
Being able to collect this unique honey is a difficult task. Since the discovery in 2009, the harvesting of Peri Balı has become a complex and dangerous operation, which is repeated only once a year.
Collectors face a trekking of about 8 hours through dense forests and steep paths to reach the area, once they arrive near the cavity, the team prepares for the most delicate phase.
The cave is located on a rock face, and this is where mountaineering skills come into play. The collectors, equipped with harnesses, ropes and professional climbing equipmentthey actually lower themselves into the cave.
Once they reach the honeycombs, they must work with extreme caution. Their job is detach them from the rock without damaging theman operation that requires hours of technical work and precision in a dark environment.
The sale
It goes without saying that the selling price of such a unique and scarce product, obtained after a very complicated collection process, can only be high.
The first international auctions set record figures: in 2009, one kilogram was sold in France for 45,000 euroswhile the following year, in China, another kilogram found a buyer a 28,000 euros.
Over time, the price stabilized around 5,000 euros per kilogram. Today, in fact, alongside bulk sales, a more accessible but equally exclusive format has been introduced consisting of jars packaged by 150 grams.
In 2025, these jars went on sale in the luxury department store Harrods of London, with the name of “Elvish Honey“, at the modest sum of 1,350 euros eachin a limited edition of just 100 bottles.
However, the price lists have undergone recent adjustments due to the very high demand, now costing 1,570 euros per jar, a collector’s format that makes Fairy Honey a coveted product as much as a jewel.
