Ibn Battuta Mall is themed around the travels of the 14th-century Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta, with six sections representing the countries he visited — Morocco, Andalusia, Tunisia, Persia, India, and China — each decorated in an elaborate architectural pastiche of the respective region. The Persia court's domed ceiling is genuinely impressive; the China court has a full-scale replica junk suspended from the ceiling.
It is located in Jebel Ali near the southern end of the Metro line, and primarily serves the residential communities in that area. For visitors, the main reason to come is the architecture — no other mall in Dubai has this level of decorative ambition, and the effect is genuinely theatrical rather than merely tacky. The cinema complex here is large and typically less crowded than the malls nearer Downtown.