The vision
A 170km linear mirrored city for 9 million people — entirely car-free, AI-managed and powered by renewable energy, running through the Neom desert on a spine of underground transit.
Context
Unveiled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the centrepiece of the $500 billion NEOM zone, The Line was designed as a 200m-wide, 500m-high continuous wall of mirrored facades housing 9 million residents in a hyper-dense, climate-controlled environment.
What happened
By 2024, investigative reports and insider testimony suggested the project had been drastically scaled back from 170km to roughly 2.4km for its first phase, with construction progress far behind schedule. Labour conditions drew international condemnation, and financial analysts questioned whether the original vision was technically or economically feasible.
Why it fell short
- Impractical scale — a continuous 170km built structure has no engineering precedent
- Severe delays and repeated scale-backs from the original vision
- Workforce deaths, forced evictions and poor labour conditions sparked international condemnation
- Ecological disruption of the Neom coastline and inland wildlife corridors
- Governance and financial complexity beyond any single project in history