Neom / The Line

Submission 3,367

About

The Line, also called Neom, is a planned city with a linear layout slated to be constructed in Saudi Arabia's Tabuk Province. The 110-mile-long city is designed to have no cars, streets, or carbon emissions, and was first proposed by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. Work on the foundations of the city began in October 2022, with discussions and debates about the city's construction and viability continuing into 2024.

Origin

On January 10th, 2021, Saudi Arabia announced the plan for The Line, a linear city in Neom, in the country's Tabuk Province. The official YouTube account for NEOM posted a YouTube^[1] video announcing the plans for the city, gathering over 14 million views and 4,000 likes in three years (seen below).

According to Reuters^[2] The Line is slated to be 110 miles long with plans to host nine million residents, making it the most densely populated city in the world by a large margin. Artistic depictions of The Line show two mirrored buildings sheltering an outdoor space between them, with the structures having a total width of 200 metres and height of 500 meters.

Plans for the city show that it aims to be powered entirely by renewable energy, with AI-enabled monitoring that uses predictive data models to find ways to improve life for its citizens.^[3]

On July 25th, 2022, NEOM's YouTube^[4]^[5] channel posted two more videos advertising the planned city, gathering over 50 million views and 14 million views (seen below).

Online Reactions

Redditor /u/Palifaith posted pictures of the construction sites at The Line to /r/DamnThatsInteresting on Reddit^[8] on September 11th, 2023, gathering over 27,000 upvotes in five months (seen below).

Discussions about The Line intensified in March 2024, with X users reacting with surprise and trepidation to a post about foundational work for the construction project being underway. On March 2nd, 2024, X^[6] user @flglmn wrote, "what if we built a whole city in a straight line" is a serious contender for the dumbest idea anyone on earth has ever had," gathering over 6,000 likes in a day (seen below, left). Also on March 2nd, 2024, X^[7] user @growing_daniel wrote, "Wait they’re actually building this fucking thing," gathering over 56,000 likes in a day (seen below, right)