Featured Image Credit: Neom
Saudi Arabia's absolutely titanic mega-project The Line is aiming to build something on a scale that hasn't really been seen before.
It's had a very rocky couple of months, with some doubting its timeline will actually come true, but the core ambition at its heart remains unbelievably large.
It's worth knowing that The Line is just one part of a huge overall project area called Neom, is currently planning to be made up of 10 sub-regions, and multiple projects within them.
Neom occupies a massive swathe of land, most of which will be a nature reserve, and is situated just to the south of Jordan, over the Red Sea from the Egyptian coast.
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If The Line is completed to it's full specifications, it'll be 170km long -with a map suggesting it spans pretty much the whole Neom region.
Map of the under construction city of Neom, Saudi Arabia, including ‘The Line’, a planned linear city. | Source: https://t.co/aXwqSuAexo #maps #geography pic.twitter.com/E4Iw5psTsw
— MapAddict (@AddictMap) January 2, 2023
The Neom area is roughly the same size as Belgium, which might make it easier to visualize how enormous the linear city is intended to be.
The length also means it will experience multiple different types of microclimates, including some coastal sections that could offer up beach access and views over the sea, alongside other parts that are far hotter and drier.
However, it's also clear just how much work remains to be done on The Line. While construction has started and is making progress, it'll take years before it's close to completion.
This has drawn attention in the last couple of months after Saudi Arabia was rumored to downgrade its plans for the first major milestone in The Line's construction, which will arrive in 2030.
Reports suggested it was downsized to just 2.4km long.
If it takes more than five years to build that much of the city, one can only imagine how many decades it might take to finally reach the 170km goal that has been set.
However, Saudia Arabia and Neom's executives remain adamant that the project is going ahead as planned - and it will actually reach the full scale first promised.
It's clear that there's a whole lot of construction to be done at Neom - as well as The Line, other projects in the area include a floating port city called Oxagon, a ski and adventure resort in the mountains - which is set to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games - a luxury island resort in the Red Sea and multiple hotels that look like something out of a sci-fi film.
