Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Maps Out NEOM Project to House 9 Million People

Saudi Arabia wants to build a gigantic megastructure that contains a city for 9 million people, its crown prince announced Monday.

The design takes the shape of two parallel buildings with mirrored surfaces, rising 500 metres (1,640 feet) above sea level — taller than the Empire State Building — and stretching horizontally for more than 100 kilometres.

They’re part of the prince’s $500 billion Neom project, a plan to turn an expanse of desert the size of Belgium into a high-tech region. NEOM, the flagship megaproject of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, came to light in 2017.

He has marketed it as a test bed for new technology that may transform urban living, as well as a means of attracting foreign investment and diversifying the oil-based economy.

But five years in, Neom has been plagued by setbacks, many stemming from the difficulty of implementing the prince’s grand and ever-changing ideas, according to current and former employees. Neom’s plans include an industrial city and a mountain ski resort.

But its centrepiece is The Line, a linear city unveiled in 2021.

Initially described as a series of walkable communities close to nature, it has since transformed into the current idea to build a megastructure that makes up the entire city, with gardens and parks along the inside.

The announcement confirmed reporting by Bloomberg last month that Saudi Arabia was planning to construct the world’s largest buildings.

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