Ibn Battuta Mall

Ibn Battuta was a relatively famous 14^th century Arab scholar who travelled 120,000km, today I visited a mall created in his honor. It was described as having pretty average shopping with the real draw being the décor. The massive mall is split into 6 different regions representative of Battuta’s travels, China, India, Egypt, Persia, Andalusia and Tunisia. Every one was beautifully decorated in such detail!

China’s main attraction was meant to be it’s full size Chinese junk (the ship) but for me it was the ceiling that captured my attention

The full sized Chinese Ship

Next up was the beautiful India providing a contrast from the bright hues of the Chinese section to the creams of the towering dome.

The 8ft high elephant was, again, supposed to be main feature but I was more interested in the tiny detail put into the walls and how elegant the whole room looked together

From there I wandered over to Egypt.

I really liked how in most of the big domes there were signs and features giving information on Ibn Battuta's adventures and the tools he used to navigate his way

Persia was probably my favourite and I say down with a coffee in the middle of the hand painted dome and just enjoyed the craftsmanship 

The smallest was Andalusia, set in a quiet corner of the mall it's only real attraction was it's lion fountain although I really loved the detail on the wooden ceilings!

And finally I found Tunisia were I tried some delicious turkish delight (which I normally don't like)

Another amazing ceiling decoration

most of the mall was designed to look like the streets of the particular region, Tunisia's attempt was one of the best for me

 Some 'turkish delight' above, and the sort of turkish delight I'm used to see ing below in so many different flavours!

Kites!