In 2017, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS) announced audacious plans to build an extraordinarily ambitious 26,500 square kilometre urban area called Neom at the northern tip of the Red Sea, with a budget of US$1.5 trillion.
The various parts of this vast urban area would include a floating industrial complex, an island tourist resort, a ski resort, and probably the most famous of all, The Line: a 105-mile-long (170 km), 660 ft-wide (200 m), 1,600 ft-high (500 m) city. Yes, a 105-mile-long, 100-story skyscraper that would house nine million people in one of the most barren lands on earth. More on that later.
For example, One World Trade Center in New York City (the seventh tallest building in the world) is 541 meters (1,776 feet) tall.
Neom is set to be completed in 2039. Many experts are skeptical of the plan, and more recently, many media outlets have reported that the project has been significantly scaled back. There is so much conflicting information floating around the internet that we have yet to find an agreed upon amount of scale-back.
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However, MBS wants to reassure the public and the project’s investors that it is not backing down and that everything is still going according to plan. This reassurance takes the form of an initiative called “Ground X”, which has been launched to prove that everything is still on track through photos and live webcams of Neom’s progress.
Ground X reportedly has two million photos and live feeds of construction sites and project timelines for each of Neon’s districts. However, it’s not accessible to the general public and is only available to investors and vendors. This kind of ‘transparency’ bodes well for those putting up the money. It’s sad for those just curious.
Given that I was effectively a “general public” and didn’t have the credentials needed to log into Ground X, a little more digging led me to Giles Pendleton, Chief Operating Officer of The Line in Neom. He has a series of posts on LinkedIn titled “NEOM is real…”, the latest of which was “episode 15,” published a month ago. “There’s a lot of work on the table.” [sic] “As camps emerge at NEOM and infrastructure excavations begin to reveal the true scale of activities,” he says.
Three months ago, in an edited post, Pendleton continued: “Despite the latest progress video and false media reports, it's another record month for LINE with our excavation numbers…”
There’s a two-minute video attached to his post that’s worth a quick look. Some of the largest excavators and dumpers on The Line’s massive construction site in Neom look like tiny ants.
Neom progress video
Nothing of this magnitude has ever been attempted before. Sure, cities like New York City, Tokyo, and Beijing are vast metropolises that are marvels with the vast amount of infrastructure needed to function on a daily basis, but these are traditionally built cities that have grown over decades.
“The master plan for LINE remains 170km, which we’ve always talked about and always advocated for, to be built in phases,” Pendleton wrote in a post three months ago. “We’re working on Phase 1, which we’ll launch later this year. Nothing has changed. Imagine trying to build 170km or a city of 9 million people all at once, it’s like trying to build New York or London all at once. Impossible.”
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The Line will be a completely self-sufficient city built within the walls of its 105-mile-long x 0.125-mile-wide x 0.31-mile-high (169 x 200 x 500 m) structure. No roads, no cars. Everything one could possibly need within a five-minute walk in a climate-controlled area. It will take just 20 minutes to get from one end to the other on the high-speed rail system inside its walls. Plans even include a 45,000-seat football stadium for the 2034 World Cup.
The Line will be powered entirely by solar and wind, and will even have its own government to promote tourism and diversity – more democratic than Saudi Arabia’s authoritarian government.
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At least that's the plan.
Other plans for Neom include:
Trojena: A mountainous region with elevations ranging from 4,921 ft (1,500 m) to 8,530 ft (2,600 m), making it an ideal location for a massive ski resort with over 3,600 hotel rooms, an amphitheatre, retail and dining areas. It seems difficult to have a ski resort in an arid desert, but Neom promises three months of skiing each year at the Trojena resort.
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Sindalah: A super-luxury resort island and yacht club on the Red Sea with world-class shopping and cuisine.
Oxagon: It looks like a floating port strategically located, equipped with factories, offices and similar structures, powered by 100% renewable energy.
Magna: The 120 km long coastal wildlife sanctuary is adorned with 12 luxury tourist destinations along the way.
The list goes on and on… and on: Leyja, Epicon, Siranna, Utamo, Norlana, Aquellum, Zardun, Xaynor, Elanan, Gidori, Treyam, Jaumur. These are all areas of Neom that are used to “inspire, relax, create, find harmony with nature, awaken your senses, recharge, explore, escape, transcend, adventure.” It looks like the PR team used a near-complete vocabulary to write promotional content to describe their vision for Neom.
Most importantly, they forgot to include “bring us all your money”, but it seems like it was implied.
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This is straight from the Neom website about Aquellum, the upcoming development ‘imprisoned in a mountain’ along the Red Sea coast: “Aquellum will be the underground digitalised community of the future. Invisible from the outside, this hidden world will be driven by limitless imagination and will overturn architectural principles to integrate with nature. It will seamlessly connect hotel accommodation, apartments, retail spaces, entertainment and relaxation areas and innovative hubs.”
The renderings of what Neom could and should be are nothing short of incredible to look at. We'd love to see it in person when it's built. According to the Crown Prince, everything is on track until 2039.
Source: Neom