A honey and beehive products festival opened Friday at the Pedion tou Areos Park in Thessaloniki, with producers and bee-keepers displaying the various kinds of honey produced in Greece and other honey and beehive products, such as pollen, royal jelly, beeswax and propoline, while bee hives with live bees will also be on display.

Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about beehive products and their nutritional and health properties by experts from the Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and by beekeepers and honey producers.

Short films will also be screened on bees and their contribution to the ecosystem and to the human diet and health.

Several booths will also be set up where visitors can sample the wide range of Greek honey.

One of the oldest foods known to man, honey is pure and healthy and contains important vitamins and minerals.

Honey is first mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Judges 14:8 which is believed to have been written about 1050-1000 B.C. In Spain 7,000 year-old cave paintings depict beekeeping, while it is also known that the ancient Egyptians kept bees over 4,000 years ago, using the honey for sweetening and for its healing power.