Orman Garden

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Historical Background
The Gardens (Giza Royal Palace Gardens) were built during the reign of Khedive Ismaiel (1830-1895) on a total area of 95.2 feddans. They had three sections; the Lemon Garden which was used to provide the royal palaces with citrus fruits, the Salamlik Garden and the Haramlik Garden. In the year 1875, Khedive Ismaiel decided to create an Egyptian forest similar to ‘Bois de Boulogne’ park in Paris in place of the Lemon Garden, so he resorted to French expert Delchevalerie so as to design the park according to the French style. The new garden was hence called El-Orman; the Turkish synonym for forest.	Palace of Gizeh plan in 1891
Unfortunately, over the years the total area of the Saray El-Giza Gardens significantly diminished. However, it was not all in vain for in 1890 the Haramlik Garden was partitioned to build the Giza Zoo, and in 1898 the northern part of El-Orman Garden was cut off to build the Egyptian Survey Authority which was known as the Public Surveying Authority at that time. Another major change came onto the original concept in 1903; the Giza Palace was pulled down to build the Schools of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine and in 1905 the School of Engineering was built on the western side of the Salamlik Garden. Furthermore, during the period spanning from 1925 to 1928, most of the area of the Haramlik Garden was used to build Cairo University, diminishing the area of El-Orman Garden to 58 feddans.	The Orman Garden and the Zoological garden in 1933
In the year 1934, El-Nahda Street was built to link Cairo University and Al Gamaa Bridge (the University Bridge); a modification that led to splitting El-Orman Garden off sister garden Salamlik which was then annexed to the Giza Zoo enlarging the area of the later to 80 feddans. El-Orman Garden had then reached its present area of only 28 feddans.	The Orman Garden and the Zoological garden in 1958
Value and Importance of El-Orman Botanical Garden
El-Orman Botanical Garden has a great natural value thanks to the wide array of plant species that it houses. The impressive plantation is composed of different and various plant forms such as trees, shrubs, succulents, cacti, climbers, herbs, and palms. One of the important observations, made during the information gathering, about the plant species in El-Orman Garden is that some rare species do exist only in this garden and nowhere else in Egypt, for example; Aeschynomene elaphroxylon, Cassia roxburghii, and Erythrina poeppigiana.	Cassia roxburghii
Some species such as Cycas beddomei, and Latania lontaroides were found to be endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), hence these plants need to be protected and conserved. Among the conspicuous landmarks of El-Orman Botanical Garden is El-Orman Hebrarium. Herbaria are collections of dried preserved specimens that document the identity of plants and fungi. They represent a record with many and varied functions including identification, research and education.	Cycas beddomei
El-Orman Herbarium comprises dried specimens of both cultivated and wild plants. Each herbarium sheet has a label indicating the plant’s scientific name, family and the location where it was collected from. The Herbarium also and interestingly includes King Farouk’s private collection that comprises dried specimens of plants collected from Sinai, Gebel Elba and other wild plants pertaining to various regions of Egypt. This project was carried out on site in Egypt by Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture as a part of the documentation of plants in six gardens managed by the Ministry of Agriculture.	Latania lontaroides