The Ministry of Agriculture opened the Agricultural Museum in Dokki, and the Egypt Flowers exhibition on the same grounds, free of charge on 8, 9 and 10 October 2026. Minister Alaa Farouk tied the three days to the October war commemorations. Saturday 10 October was the last free day. Al-Masry Al-Youm ran the decision on the 8th. Vetogate closed the window on the 10th with families still on the lawn. From 11 October the usual 20 EGP ticket is back.
Thursday 8 October was the paid holiday the cabinet moved off Tuesday 6 October. Labour Minister Hassan Raddad confirmed the private-sector day off. Friday and Saturday followed. For anyone in Dokki, Agouza or Mohandessin that was three days without a commute, a few metro stops from the Nile, and a museum ticket that cost nothing. That window is over. Do not turn up today expecting the waiver.
The rest of the year the ministry sells a 20 EGP ticket. Maspero carried that figure on 1 October, when Egypt Flowers was already running as a year-round market. The 8 to 10 October window waived it. Vetogate, wrapping the last free afternoon, repeated 20 EGP for a combined museum and flower-show visit. That is the number at the gate again.
Halls closed at 15:00. The flowers stayed until 21:00
Egypt Flowers takes visitors from 09:00 to 21:00. The museum halls close at 15:00 even on free days. If the cotton rooms, the ancient Egyptian agriculture galleries, or the plant-wealth hall are the reason you came, go in the morning. After three the grounds are still a nursery. The halls are not.
The ministry list of rooms behind that 15:00 cutoff is long enough to fill a morning. Heritage collections. Scientific collections. The plant-wealth hall. The cotton museum. Ancient Egyptian agriculture. Greek, Roman, Coptic and Islamic rooms. The Syrian foyer. The Egypt-China friendship museum. Youm7 walked those interiors with Giza Governor Ahmed El-Ansary in May. The palace rooms still look like a 1930s house, not a mall atrium. Director Riad El-Qalyoubi told El-Aard the campus holds seven specialised museums on one site.
The site is Princess Fatma Ismail's palace on Ministry of Agriculture Street. King Farouk opened it as a public museum in 1938. Al-Ahram still calls it the second agricultural museum of its kind after Budapest. Press copy puts the grounds at about 30 feddans. Most of that is garden, not gallery. That is why the flower show fits here in October as well as in spring.
What Egypt Flowers is after the free days
This is not the April Spring Flowers fair with a closing date. The ministry has kept a year-round Egypt Flowers market on about 15,000 square metres of the same Dokki campus, with more than 80 exhibitors in cut flowers, ornamentals, cacti and landscape supplies. Youm7 repeated the 09:00 to 21:00 hours in July. The 1 October reminder did not change them. The waiver did not change them either.
Farouk also asked for music, family entertainment and cultural sets across the three free days. The ministry did not publish a timed programme by name. Treat that as extra if it is on the lawn when you arrive, not as a reason to skip the halls before 15:00.
Giza Zoo and Orman Garden next door have been closed since July 2023. PLACE.md still has no opening day. This campus is the Dokki green space that is actually selling tickets. After the halls shut, the Agouza and Dokki corniche is a short hop if you still want Nile air. Kit Kat is the cheap end of that walk.
Dokki metro on Line 2 is the stop. The gate is on Ministry of Agriculture Street, the same street the food-fair coverage used in Ramadan. Bring water. October afternoons in the open beds still run hot. School groups keep using the halls on ordinary days. 20 EGP is cheap. It is not free.
Practical details
- Dates: Free entry was 8, 9 and 10 October 2026. Paid entry from 11 October
- Time: Egypt Flowers 09:00 to 21:00. Museum halls until 15:00
- Venue: Agricultural Museum, Ministry of Agriculture Street, Dokki, Giza
- Nearest metro: Dokki, Line 2
- Price: 20 EGP after the waiver, per Maspero on 1 October and Vetogate on 10 October
- Website: Ministry of Agriculture
