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Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta[is an award-winning IMAX ("giant screen") dramatised documentary film charting the first real-life journey made by the Islamic scholar Ibn Battuta from his native Morocco to Mecca for the Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage), in 1325.  With narration by Ben Kingsley, the film, which is "bookended" by scenes from the contemporary Muslim pilgrimage, chronicles the first 18 month-long leg of Ibn Battuta's journey, to Mecca. It was filmed in Morocco and Saudi Arabia in English and Arabic, with Berber in the background.

On the way to Mecca, riding alone on horseback,Ibn Battuta was held up by bandits, robbed and nearly killed, but when the leader of the bandits realized that he was a pilgrim, feeling ashamed, he offered to escort Ibn Battuta to Egypt (for a fee). It was a difficult journey by camel across the desert and they were faced with fierce sandstorms, before taking to boats to navigate the Nile. Reaching Egypt, he handed a letter given to him by a friend to a Sheikh, and based on a Hadith (an oral tradition) of the Prophet Muhammed, he was advised "to seek knowledge to China", hence his further extensive travels.

Ibn Battuta had intended to continue his journey to Mecca by sea, via the port of ‘Aydhab on the Red Sea,but war and the dangers that posed made him travel by land through Damascus instead, joining a 10,000-strong caravan of fellow pilgrims along the way, staying with them until they finally reach their destination, Mecca.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_Mecca

From MacGillivray Freeman, the Academy Award®-nominated producers of Everest and Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk comes an ambitious and thought-provoking learning adventure: Arabia 3D.

Travel to the exotic and fascinating land of Arabia. Explore the lost city of Madain Saleh, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Dive through the reefs and shipwrecks of the Red Sea; travel with a camel caravan along ancient trade routes and fierce deserts; and experience the great pilgrimage known as the Hajj--the largest gathering of people on Earth. Discover an extraordinary culture and experience modern day Arabia in the midst of monumental change.

At a time when images of the Middle East in the Western media are often synonymous with extremism, MacGillivray Freeman's Arabia 3D offers a broader understanding of this distant land by journeying deep inside its culture to reveal the origins of a way of life largely hidden from our view.

The story of Arabia 3D is told by three vibrant, modern-day Arabian citizens: Hamzah Jamjoom, a Saudi Arabian film student at Chicago’s De Paul University who returns home to make a film about his heritage; Nimah Nawwab, a writer and photographer who provides a young woman’s perspective on Arabia; and leading Arabian archaeologist Dr. Daifallah Al-Talhi, who is digging into his people’s incredible past.

http://www.arabia-film.com/

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