Draped in a Serbian flag, the wooden casket carrying the body was laid out in the communist-era Revolution Museum of suburban Belgrade.
Some five hours later at 6:30 pm there were still almost 2,500 Milosevic supporters there, although the Socialist Party, which Milosevic once led, put the figure much higher.
Milosevic is due to be buried on Saturday in his birthplace of Pozarevac, a town 70 kilometres southeast of Belgrade, a week after dying of heart failure in a cell of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Supporters claim that Milosevic was murdered but a forensic examination confirmed by Serbian and Russian doctors, found that he had a cardiac arrest.
He had been on trial for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over his role in the 1990s Balkans wars which killed up to 200,000 people.
Transported in a grey van, his coffin arrived at the museum, situated in the upscale suburb of Dedinje a few blocks from Milosevic's former villa, where he was arrested before being handed over to the UN war crimes court in 2001.
Arriving 90 minutes late, it was then exposed in a red-carpeted room on the first floor of the museum.
Coffin guarded
People filed past on either side of the coffin which was guarded by eight men. The flags of Serbia and Serbia-Montenegro hung in the background as mourners, some crying and with their heads bowed, carried red roses.
Senior Socialists were later joined by leaders of the ultra-nationalist
Radical Party, whose own leader Vojislav Seselj has been awaiting trial in The Hague for more than three years.
After the two-day public viewing the Socialist Party plans a commemoration ceremony at noon on Saturday in front of the federal parliament, which pro-democracy supporters stormed to oust him from power on October 5, 2000.
The body of the man who was revered by some as a great Serb, but despised by others as a bloodthirsty ruler, will then begin its final journey to Pozarevac for the funeral.
Local authorities in the town gave the go-ahead for a burial in the grounds of the family compound where his body would be laid to rest under a century-old linden tree.
Milosevic, who was being judged for some of the worst war crimes of modern Europe, has been refused a state funeral by Serbian authorities because of his past.
It is still unclear which family members will attend the funeral, with the only confirmations being members of his SPS party and a delegation of Russian lawmakers.
Milosevic's widow, Mira Markovic, who has been living in Russia, and son Marko will fly into Serbia on Friday ahead of the funeral.