Ibn Battuta travelled the world for 29 years
10 April 2012
This handsomely mounted IMAX film, whose makers were admitted for the first time into the Grand Mosque in Mecca (a favour requiring 85 different permits), follows the journey to Mecca of Ibn Battuta, the 14th-century Moroccan traveller.
Battuta travelled the world for 29 years before returning home, going three times further than Marco Polo and dictating his reminiscences into a famous travel book called the Rihla. But this fascinating character is made into too reverential a figure, and the screenplay is largely clichés about the wisdom of the Koran.
Only the splendid visuals offer much that is fresh.
Journey To Mecca
Cert: PG
