Saudi Arabia is vigorously interested in diversifying its economy. Unlike the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia is planning to develop the biggest tourism industry. The crown prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman launched Saudi Vision 2030 on April 25, 2016. It seeks to modernize society with cultural traditions, diversify the Saudi economy away from oil, and enhance the Kingdom’s global profile.
A futuristic city will be built in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern province called Tabuk—a city which is designed in a one hundred-and-seventy-kilometer-long line. Taller than the height of the Eiffel Tower, this line’s height is determined to be 500 meters tall and 200 meters wide. The ideal line-come-city will have huge mirrors on both sides with advanced futuristic technologies in it. According to some estimates, the cost of transforming this utopian city into a reality can reach up to one trillion dollars. The Saudi government claims that the city will be completed by the year 2045.
Whenever the name Saudi Arabia is mentioned, the first two things that pop up in our minds are desert and oil. Most of the country is indeed surrounded by desert, where the temperature can reach up to 45°C during the day. But apart from this, the country is adequately diverse in its geography. One can also find mountains and volcanic fields here. There are more than two thousand dormant volcanoes in Saudi Arabia. What makes the country more interesting is that Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the Middle East and the 18th largest in the whole world. But this is also true that this gigantic economy is mostly dependent on oil. The country is the largest exporter of petroleum in the world. Despite striking it rich, recent times have shown that Saudi Arabia is vigorously interested in diversifying its economy. Unlike the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia is planning to develop the biggest tourism industry. The crown prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman launched Saudi Vision 2030 on April 25, 2016. It seeks to modernize society with cultural traditions, diversify the Saudi economy away from oil, and enhance the Kingdom’s global profile.
The NEOM City is also one of the parts of Saudi Vision Plan 2030. Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has dedicated a hefty area of the country towards the development of Neom Smart City. In total, the area of this smart city will be around 26,500 km2 and its location will be in the north of the Red Sea, northwestern part of Saudi Arabia. The reason behind choosing this area is its geographical location because the climate here is comparatively moderate. The other parts of the country are hotter due to the surroundings of the desert. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants to build an ideal city that shows us a new future. According to its developers, Neom City will have ten different projects that will be termed as ten different regions. The Saudi government has already announced the details of four of them.
The first is the Oxagon, an octagon-shaped floating port that will be the next-generation industrial center of the Neom. The second is Trojena, which is the first major outdoor skiing point of the Arabian Peninsula. Not only that, but this part of the project has already won the bid to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029. Third is Sindala, a luxury resort complex located outside the coast of the city. This luxury island can host up to 2,400 people at a time and it is spread over 840,000 m2 with a lot of things to do such as the promenade, yacht club, golf course, marina, beach club, and everything one can imagine to have on a luxury island. Then comes the fourth and unbelievable project called The Line. The Line was announced on January 10, 2021, and a lot of people doubted whether it would be built in actuality or not. But at this point, the construction of the project Line has already begun. The most fascinating thing about this project is its design, a 170 km long line. This whole city will be situated between two five-hundred-meter-tall skyscrapers. These buildings will be linear and placed in parallel positions with each other and will have huge mirrors on the exterior. The idea itself is not completely new. Similar ideas were proposed in the 1800s and the mid-1900s. However, no one had enough resources to implement these ideas practically. The basic reason behind this project Line is to protect the nature-surrounding landscape of the area so that it has to bear the least bit of damage. The area of this project is only 34 sq. km2 and its developers have claimed that around nine million people will live in this city. No one knows whether it will be practically possible or not. For now, it seems that the idea of aesthetic mirrored walls has been announced to make this project look more futuristic and unique but its practicality remains questionable even in the twenty-first century.
