Saudi Arabia has unveiled new promotional material that shows its ambitious project of building a sustainable 170 kilometer-long skyscraper city in the middle of the desert.
The urban development project, known as the Line, will be located in Neom, in northwestern Saudi Arabia and was founded by the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017.
Besides its unusually long length, the city will only be 200 meters wide and 500 meters tall, to protect 95% of the surrounding land.
The project aims to create a completely sustainable city which will run with 100% renewable energy for 9 million people.
As a car-free city, a high speed rail will allow citizens to reach end-to-end in about 20 minutes, and everything residents need will be within a five minute walk.
The crown prince said he hopes the city will help diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil dependent economy and find new solutions for environmental problems.
The project aims to create 380,000 jobs and focus on building the service-industry.
“We cannot ignore the livability and environmental crises facing our world’s cities, and NEOM is at the forefront of delivering new and imaginative solutions to address these issues,” the crown prince said in a press release.
Promotional material released over the weekend shows the city stretching through the desert and its mirror facade reflecting the surface below.
Other images show “dystopian” visuals of multiple open spaces with hanging gardens and even a river.
The crown prince has said it will become the world’s “most livable city by far“, according to the Guardian.
The project’s first phase will cost 1.2 trillion Saudi riyals(US$320 billion) and is estimated to finish by 2030.
