Anzer Plateau: Alpine Meadows and Anzer Honey

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1. What is Anzer Plateau?
2. How do you get to Anzer Plateau?
3. When is the best time to visit Anzer Plateau?
4. What is the history of Anzer Plateau?
5. What is Anzer Plateau famous for?
6. What can you do at Anzer Plateau?
7. Common misconceptions about Anzer Plateau
8. Frequently asked questions about Anzer Plateau
9. What do the official records say about Anzer Plateau?

What is Anzer Plateau?

Anzer is a high summer plateau in the İkizdere district of Rize, above the village of Ballıköy, which was called Anzer until it was renamed after its most famous product. In summer its meadows, well over 2,000 metres up, are covered in alpine flowers, and families from the valley move up to their wooden houses with their animals and beehives.

Anzer is known throughout Türkiye for its honey. Anzer honey is made only from the flowers of the plateau, in small amounts, and it is among the most prized and most expensive honeys in the country. Researchers have recorded more than 400 species of flowering plants here, about 80 of them found only in this area.

How do you get to Anzer Plateau?

From Rize, follow the coast road west to the İyidere junction and turn inland up the İkizdere valley to the town of İkizdere. From there a mountain road climbs south to Ballıköy and the plateau; the 2002 inventory gives 39 km, and other sources about 35 km. The total from Rize is about 85 km. Part of the road is asphalt, but the final sections are gravel or earth.

The plateau is reached in summer by car or local minibus. A vehicle with good clearance, or a driver from İkizdere who knows the road, is a good idea, especially after rain. The nearest airports are Rize–Artvin and Trabzon.

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When is the best time to visit Anzer Plateau?

Come in July or August. The flowers are at their best in early to mid-summer, the road is usually dry, and the plateau is full of life as families tend their bees and animals. June can still bring snow on the higher ground, and from autumn to late spring the plateau is effectively closed. Even in August, nights are cold at this height, and fog can come up from the valley in the afternoon, so bring warm layers.

What is the history of Anzer Plateau?

Anzer has been a summer pasture for the people of the İkizdere valley for generations. Families move up from Ballıköy at the end of spring and stay through the summer, living in timber houses on stone foundations and making a living from sheep and goats, dairy products and beekeeping.

Its honey has a long history: Anzer honey appears in Ottoman-era records. The modern reputation grew in the late 20th century, and with it the problem of fake “Anzer” honey sold across the country. The provincial directorate of agriculture applied for protection, and in February 2021 the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office granted Anzer honey geographical-indication status. Each year’s honey is analysed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University in Rize and sold with a certificate through the producers’ cooperative.

The state has also protected the plateau itself. The inventory records that a government decision of 7 February 1991 declared 9,337 hectares a tourism centre, and in 1995 the area was declared a natural protected site.

What is Anzer Plateau famous for?

• Anzer honey. Honey from the plateau’s wild flowers, one of the most valued food products in Türkiye.
• Alpine flowers. More than 400 flowering species, about 80 of them endemic to the area.
• Plateau life. A working summer settlement where beekeeping, herding and dairy still dominate.

What can you do at Anzer Plateau?

Walk the meadows. The open slopes around the summer houses are ideal for walking and for photographing the flowers in July.

Buy honey at the source. Buy only certified Anzer honey from the cooperative or producers it recognises; the name is widely imitated, and the producers themselves warn against honey sold as Anzer in supermarkets.

Watch wildlife. Bears, roe deer, wild goats and many bird species live around the plateau.

Visit Çağırankaya. The inventory describes another İkizdere plateau, Çağırankaya, 25 km east of İkizdere on a scenic earth road, named for the echo created by the steep cliffs and precipices around its flat meadow. It holds a festival in August.

Stop in the İkizdere valley. On the way up, look out for the old single-arched stone bridges of the valley, such as the Güneyce bridge.

Common misconceptions about Anzer Plateau

Is honey labelled “Anzer” always from Anzer?

What people often assume: That any jar sold as Anzer honey, in markets or online, comes from the plateau.

What the record says: Production on the plateau is small, and producers have repeatedly warned that far more honey is sold under the Anzer name than the plateau could ever produce. Geographical-indication status, granted in 2021, protects the name, and genuine Anzer honey is sold with a laboratory certificate through the producers’ cooperative; producers advise against buying “Anzer” honey from supermarkets (as reported by CNN Türk and other Turkish news outlets after the 2021 registration).

Frequently asked questions about Anzer Plateau

What do the official records say about Anzer Plateau?

İkizdere Anzer Plateau Tourism Centre is 39 km south of the İkizdere district of Rize. On the plateau, at an altitude of 3,000 metres, infrastructure services have been completed. The famous Anzer honey, a cure for many illnesses, is produced on this plateau.

Under the “Plateau Tourism Project” launched in 1990 to bring the plateaus into tourism, a total of three plateau tourism centres have been declared in Rize province so far: the Anzer, Upper and Lower Kavron and Ayder (Hot Spring) plateaus. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Rize Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)