Saudi prince plans 170-kilometer mirror city

Bin Salman has many faces: a ‘blood sheik’ who has critics such as journalist Jamal Khashoggi murdered. Dealmaker who, after years of isolation, has recently been increasingly visited by Western heads of government, from US President Biden to French head of state Macron. And high-tech fan with a soft spot for computer games and the futuristic ideas of Silicon Valley.

Mirror city with nine million inhabitants
Presenting the futuristic desert city “The Line”, bin Salman slipped into the latter role these days. The crown prince wants to build the prototype of the city of the future in the northern Arabian desert, where 500 billion dollars is being pumped into the construction of the mega-city Neom. According to the will of the Saudi prince, nine million people should one day live in the mirror city “The Line” as part of Neom.

Bin Salman’s plan is to build a drawing board city that is completely mirrored on the outside. It will be 170 kilometers long, but only 200 meters wide. In order for nine million people to find space in an area of ​​34 square kilometers, the city must be 500 meters high – higher than the Eiffel Tower. The neighborhoods are organized vertically: all residents must be able to reach their daily needs within five minutes on foot.

Design adapted to the climate, no traffic
The city’s unusual design is adapted to the desert climate: the mirrored exterior surfaces are designed to keep heat out, and “The Line” is open at the top to allow warm air to escape. Conversely, cool air should descend in the narrow, long desert city and provide pleasant temperatures. When it comes to energy supply, they want to rely on renewable sources. According to the first concept drawings and commercials, there should be a lot of greenery in the city center. Central systems in the city are controlled with artificial intelligence.

The city planners don’t want cars driving through “The Line”. Instead, taxi drones and a high-speed transportation system designed to traverse the 170-kilometer-long city in just 20 minutes will transport residents. The first ideas for “The Line” were revealed in early 2021. Now the design has been presented. An official exhibition on the city of mirrors in the desert was also opened in Jeddah near Mecca.

Neom: sci-fi city with robot dinos and a fake moon
The Line will become part of the planned megacity of Neom, which Bin Salman has been pushing since 2017 and which aims to attract “the greatest minds and brightest talents in the world.” Neom – tens of thousands are resettled for construction – will become nothing less than the richest city in the world. According to Golem.de, the airport was already opened in 2019. In total, the city will cover almost 30,000 square kilometers.

Bin-Salman called in the support of international consultants for the planning. They made some suggestions that could be implemented in the drawing board city:

• Because the planned Red Sea coastal town is surrounded by desert, they want to be artificially supplied with rain “vaccinated” clouds should come.
• Cameras, drones and facial recognition ubiquitous and keep an eye on the inhabitants of Neom at every turn – for their own safety, it is said.
• The high-tech city must Genetic Engineering Clinics house, which aims to enable ‘a new lifestyle from birth to death’ through genetic modifications, for example in human intelligence or physical strength.
• Neom is said to be fuller robot be: robo-housekeepers, robo-battles and an amusement park full of robo-dinosaurs, that’s what city planners have in mind.
• In “Neom” you have to get from A to B with the air taxi come. A planning document states, “Cars are only driven for fun, not for transportation.”
• even a fake moon is what city planners have in mind: it can be displayed by drones or be a live image of the real moon, illuminating the city at night.

In Neom’s plans, a central question remains: whether the futuristic way of life and the sophisticated population to be attracted are compatible with the religious traditions of the authoritarian Islamic country? Small concessions – alcohol is allowed to drink – are stated in the documents. However, it is not known how women’s rights or an independent judiciary, decoupled from the clergy, should be.

Still in an early implementation phase, Neom shows where Saudi Arabia wants to go. The world wants to become less dependent on oil, which would mean that Saudi Arabia would lose its main economic engine. If you don’t create other sources of income, such as the neighboring United Arab Emirates or Qatar, there is a risk of a rough awakening in the long run.