Sunday Feature - The Black Cube

Broadcaster and film-maker Navid Akhtar talks about the Ka'aba - or the Black Cube - at the heart of the Masjid al Haram Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is the holiest shrine of Islam, encircled by millions of pilgrims every year, and is traditionally said to have been built by Abraham on the foundations of the first house of Adam. Navid considers the ways the Black Cube has intersected with Western culture, from the work of constructivist painters like Malevich, to our desire for simplified geometric buildings. He discovers connections between the rituals of the pilgrimage to Mecca and Western thought, and how the cube is inspiring a new generation of Muslim artists.