The Orman Garden is one of the most famous

Botanical gardens in Egypt This is a list of botanical gardens in Egypt. References {{Egypt topics * Egypt Botanical gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less int ...

. It is located at Giza, in Cairo. It dates back to 1875 and the reign of Khedive

Isma'il Pasha Isma'il Pasha ( ar, إسماعيل باشا ; 12 January 1830 – 2 March 1895), was the Khedive of Egypt and conqueror of Sudan from 1863 to 1879, when he was removed at the behest of Great Britain. Sharing the ambitious outlook of his gran ...

who established the garden on a larger site than it presently occupies as part of the Palace of the

Khedive Khedive (, ota, خدیو, hıdiv; ar, خديوي, khudaywī) was an honorific title of Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.Adam Mestyan"Kh ...

. A great lover of gardens, the Khedive entrusted the design of the garden to the French landscaper

Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps (7 June 1824 at Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher – 12 September 1873 at Vichy) was a French horticulturist and landscape architect. He was the chief gardener of Paris during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III, and was ...

. It became a public botanical garden in 1910/1917 and put under the Ministry of Agriculture management. The garden covers about 28 acres. Today, the garden contains a

rock garden A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small A ...

, a

rose garden A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Most often it is a section of a larger garden. Designs vary tremendously and roses m ...

cactus garden A cactarium or cactuario (from Latin, ''cactarium'') is a garden dedicated to the planting of cacti. While they generally specialize in collecting cacti, they can also include other desert plants such as sabla, agaves or Crassulaceae, although th ...

s, and probably the most notable feature, the

lotus Lotus may refer to: Plants *Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly: ** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae **Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...

pond. Orman Garden is located west of the

River Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...

and east of

Cairo University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

in the

Giza Governorate Giza Governorate ( ar, محافظة الجيزة ') is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is in the center of the country, situated on the west bank of the Nile River opposite Cairo. Its capital is the city of Giza. It includes a stretch of ...

. “''Orman''” is a Turkish word, which means “the forest”. A small botanical museum attached to the garden shelters

herbaria A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

dating from the Ismail khedive and furniture from the king

Farouk Farooq (also transliterated as Farouk, Faruqi, Farook, Faruk, Faroeq, Faruq, or Farouq, Farooqi, Faruque or Farooqui; ar, فاروق, Fārūq) is a common Arabic given and family name. ''Al-Fārūq'' literally means "the one who distinguishes b ...

Spring Festival

Since 1920, the Orman Garden has hosted an annual spring floral exhibition. The Spring Festival usually starts in March every year and is an important Egyptian cultural event in spring. In 2021, it started on March 13. Officials from the ministry of agriculture open the exhibition. The spring fair usually lasts a month. During that time, many companies exhibit their various plant offerings including ornamental plants, cut flowers, cactus, seeds for growing many plants, fertilizers, gardening tools, and pots. In addition, local goods like woven baskets, Aswanian honey, essential oils, souvenirs, and jewelry can also be found at the exhibition. Prices for plants start from as low as 5 LE and rare varieties can reach thousands. Huge plant producers like Egypt Green (Safwat Habib) and sellers of clay pots from the Fustat Souq in Old Cairo participate in the exhibition.

Special Collections

Conifers Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extan ...

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

cacti A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

succulent In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending in ...

aquatic plants Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that ...

strelitzia ''Strelitzia'' is a genus of five species of perennial plants, native to South Africa. It belongs to the plant family Strelitziaceae. The genus is named after Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom, who was born a princess of the house of Meckle ...

* ''

Acacia nilotica ''Vachellia nilotica'', more commonly known as ''Acacia nilotica'', and by the vernacular names of gum arabic tree, babul, thorn mimosa, Egyptian acacia or thorny acacia, is a flowering tree in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Africa, the Mi ...

'' wildex Delile, Tree * ''

Albizia lebbeck ''Albizia lebbeck'' is a species of ''Albizia'', native to Indomalaya, New Guinea and Northern AustraliaUSDA (1994) and widely cultivated and naturalised in other tropical and subtropical regions. English names for it include Sirisa, Siris, lebbe ...

'' Benth, Tree * ''

Balanites aegyptiaca ''Balanites aegyptiaca'' (also known as the Egyptian balsam) is a species of tree, classified as a member of either the Zygophyllaceae or the Balanitaceae. This tree is native to much of Africa and parts of the Middle East. There are many comm ...

'' Pelile, Tree * ''

Cyperus papyrus ''Cyperus papyrus'', better known by the common names papyrus, papyrus sedge, paper reed, Indian matting plant, or Nile grass, is a species of aquatic flowering plant belonging to the sedge family Cyperaceae. It is a tender herbaceous perenn ...

'' Plant aquatic * ''

Hyphaene thebaica ''Hyphaene thebaica'', with common names doum palm (Ar: دوم) and gingerbread tree (also mistakenly doom palm), is a type of palm tree with edible oval fruit. It is a native to the Arabian Peninsula and also to the northern half and western pa ...

'' Mart. , Palm * ''

Luffa aegyptiaca ''Luffa aegyptiaca'', the sponge gourd, Egyptian cucumber or Vietnamese luffa, is an annual species of vine cultivated for its fruit, native to South and Southeast Asia. Description The three-lobed leaves are wide. The fruit, approximately ...

'' Auth , Climber
Orman Garden has a

seed bank A seed bank (also seed banks or seeds bank) stores seeds to preserve genetic diversity; hence it is a type of gene bank. There are many reasons to store seeds. One is to preserve the genes that plant breeders need to increase yield, disease resi ...

and publishes it own

Index Seminum Index Seminum meaning in Latin "seed index", is a catalog of seeds of wild or cultivated plants offered free of charge or in exchange of seeds of equivalent value by botanical gardens or arboretums. It is published annually or biennially by these ...

Gallery

References

{{reflist Botanical gardens in Egypt Buildings and structures in Giza Cactus gardens