8 Agricultural Museum

المتحف الزراعي

Photo Gallery

AddressAgricultural Museum Street, Dokki, Giza
Opening HoursDaily from 9:00 to 1:30
Telephone+20 2 33372933
ArchitectOne of the buildings is designed by the architect Nehad Kholosi
Architectural styleArt Deco, Modern, Eclectic
Date of Inauguration 16 January 1938
AffiliationMinistry of Agriculture

The Agricultural Museum is housed in the former palace complex of Princess Fatma Ismail (1853 – 1920), one of Khedive Ismail’s daughters. It is composed of a group of seven small museums as follows:

  • The Ancient Egyptian Agriculture Museum
  • The Greco-Roman Coptic and Islamic Agriculture Museum
  • The Botanical Museum
  • The Scientific Collection Museum

Later, three other museums were added:

  • The Arabic Hall Museum (1961)
  • The Cotton Museum (1996)
  • The Collections Museum (2002)

Princess Fatma Ismail is the granddaughter of Muhammad Ali Pasha (r. 1805-1848) and the daughter of Khedive Ismail (r. 1863-1879). She is mostly known for her generous financial contribution for the establishment of the first secular university in Egypt, Fuad I, known today as Cairo University. A special decree was issued in 1927, during the reign of King Fuad I, the princess’s brother, for the establishment of an Agricultural museum to document and preserve Egypt’s agricultural heritage from the Ancient Egypt to the modern time.

The Princess donated her palace in Dokki to be refurbished and adapted to display the collections. The museum was the first of its kind in Africa, and the second worldwide after the Hungarian Agricultural Museum (1908).