Saudi Arabia. “The Line”, announced in 2018 as the centerpiece of the Neom urban planning project in Saudi Arabia, is undergoing a major resizing. According to the British daily Financial Timesthe 170 km long city-line in the middle of the desert, presented as car-free and with entirely renewable energy, will not be built on the scale initially planned. The chosen phasing now consists of building a short section whose foundations have already been laid, to test the feasibility, instead of launching the construction of two parallel buildings along their entire length in a single phase.
The initiative is led by Mohammed Ben Salmane (known as “MBS”), crown prince and chairman of the board of directors of Neom, the structure which manages the development of the Saudi North-West. “The Line” was to embody the most visible symbolic dimension of Vision 2030, the country’s major economic modernization plan: to demonstrate the kingdom’s capacity to become a global player in urban innovation and to move away from an economy based on hydrocarbons. Reflecting a disproportionate architectural ambition, “The Line” would take the form of two gigantic linear buildings approximately 500 m high, 200 m apart, and covered in mirror panels, forming a megastructure connecting the desert to the Red Sea. A dug port ex nihilo halfway between the two ends of the city was to supply “The Line” by a canal coming from the Red Sea.
The interior was to accommodate housing, shops, health centers, public spaces, schools, gardens and cultural places on several levels, with a high-speed train and a soft mobility network. “The Line” was to ultimately accommodate 9 million inhabitants. The project is widely criticized for its environmental footprint (grabbing of water resources) and for land expropriations against local tribes.
In fact, only a few kilometers were covered. The pilot section will be used to test the resistance of the mirror facades to wind, the ability of the coverings to limit thermal leaks in a desert climate (summer temperatures can reach 50° Celsius in the shade), air circulation in a narrow volume, etc.
Project by The Line.
© Neom
Estimates from internal documents, confirmed by several engineering firms that participated in the first phases, placed the initial envelope between 500 billion and 1,500 billion dollars depending on the final length, including infrastructure, special materials, energy mobilization, and maintenance operations. According to the Wall Street Journal, the cost was revised following an audit in 2025 and is around $8,000 billion… Financing is mainly based on the kingdom’s sovereign fund, itself dependent on the price of a barrel of oil. However, this fund simultaneously supports other priority programs in energy, heavy industry, armaments, professional football, culture and tourism, which requires trade-offs.
Neom’s other major projects are in various states of progress: Oxagon, a floating port and industrial complex which targets logistics automation and hydrogen production, has announced commissioning between 2025 and 2030. Trojena, a high-altitude tourist complex, is continuing the construction of hotels and sports facilities in preparation for the 2029 Asian Winter Games, with openings staggered from 2026. Sindalah, island reserved for yachting and luxury hotels, is the first site to enter commercial operation, with progressive openings since the end of 2024.
