Ibn Battuta Mall

Ibn Battuta Mall stands on Sheikh Zayed Road in the south of Dubai, near Interchange 6 for Jebel Ali and the Discovery Gardens and The Gardens residential areas. It opened in April 2005 and was developed by Nakheel. It is described as the world's largest themed shopping mall.

The mall is named after Ibn Battuta, the 14th-century Moroccan scholar who spent nearly 30 years travelling across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Its six courts are each designed around a region he visited: Andalusia, Tunisia, Egypt, Persia, India and China. Exhibits along the way tell the story of his journeys and of science and invention in the medieval Islamic world.

Each court has its own architecture and decoration. The Persia Court has a large painted dome, the China Court has a full-size Chinese junk, and the Egypt Court is styled like an ancient temple. The India Court holds a working reproduction of the elephant clock described by the 12th-century engineer al-Jazari. The mall has about 275 shops and 50 restaurants, a Carrefour hypermarket and a trampoline park, and a 2013 expansion added a further retail area with stores such as Decathlon.

Three hotels connect directly to the mall, and there is parking for more than 4,500 cars. In 2025 management passed to Dubai Retail after Nakheel was merged into Dubai Holding.

Entry is free. The mall has its own station on the Dubai Metro Red Line, named Ibn Battuta, linked to the mall by a short walk. Walking the full length of the courts takes time, so allow two to three hours if you want to see all six.

Including its car parks, the mall covers about 521,000 square metres, which is why the walk from the Andalusia Court at one end to the China Court at the other feels so long.

Nakheel announced the expansion in May 2013 as a new retail hub of about 28,000 square metres for some 150 more shops, which became the additional area beside the original courts. The newer section is where the larger international stores sit, while the themed courts hold most of the cafés and the exhibits.