In 1922, in the Valley of the Kings, just outside of Luxor, Egypt, the British archaeologist Howard Carter broke into the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. If you know the story, you know that what he found inside was in near perfect condition.

A sarcophagus made of quartzite and granite, a pair of sandals made of gold, an intricate death mask inscribed with hieroglyphs.

And there were these two ceramic jars with a bee symbol on them.

And inside was a batch of honey that was thousands of years old.

All this is to say people have loved honey for a very long time.

These days, there are even people who have

dedicated their lives to tasting and learning about different kinds of honey. People who will

tell you there is a whole universe of honey to explore, who will tell you that through honey

we can actually travel the world. I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's

strange, incredible, and wondrous places. And today, we're talking to Marina Marquesi.

She is a beekeeper and a trained honey sommelier. Yes, that is a thing. She's here to tell us about

how honey tastes like the place where it's made

and give me a taste of some of the world's most unique and unusual honeies.

Hi, Marina.

Nice to meet you.

Yeah, so nice to meet you too.

First, I was just hoping you could just tell us, how do you become a honey sommelier?

Well, you have to go to honey school, essentially.

Okay.

The program is based out of Bologna, Italy, and it's run by their sort of Department

of Agriculture and Environment.

And for the last 40 years, Italy has been collecting all of the honey samples produced in the country,

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