Drone footage revealed that construction on

Saudi Arabia’s ‘The Line’ actually started.

The project has been heavily debated in recent

months and most said that it’s too gigantic

to build and rather looks like something out

of a science fiction movie.

But now that construction has actually begun,

how will this turn out?

Could this be the beginning of the world’s

greatest megaproject ever?

Or will the Line become a trillion-dollar

construction mistake that will eventually

be abandoned?

Let’s find out!

The exact plan of the Line was unveiled by

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohamad Bin

Salman in July 2022 and we already covered

it in our first video about the Line.

He proposed two parallel 500-meter-tall skyscrapers

made of reflective glass which are supposed

to span 170 kilometers through the desert.

This would be equivalent to two lines consisting

of 2000 One World Trade Centers - each.

The Line is not just the biggest megaproject

ever proposed.

It's a new way of living.

There would be no cars inside the city and

everything you need would be within a five-minute

walk.

All of the energy would be produced through

wind and solar farms and in addition, any

water used will come from a carbon-free desalination

plant.

All of this would make the Line a ‘zero

carbon city’.

The proposal caused a mixture of shock, awe,

and suspicion.

And while the trailers were watched millions

of times on YouTube and other platforms, there

was hardly any information on what was really

happening on the construction site.

Therefore, almost everyone believed that The

Line was just a publicity stunt to gain attention.

But then, around 3 months after the presentation

of Mohamad Bin Salman, things took a surprising

turn.

Construction began:

On the 19th of October 2022, drone footage

of the construction site was revealed by OT

Sky.

The video shows docents of excavators digging

trenches along the desert, which will form

the foundation of the Line.

According to the drone footage, the excavation

already leads very far inland.

It's hard to say how far it exactly goes but

they could be close to the mountains in the

background.

According to the official map on Neom's website,

the Line starts at this bay and cuts through

these mountains.

Because of the terrain and since the sea is

visible in the background, the footage was

probably taken somewhere here.

So the excavations might already be 10-20

kilometers long.

On top of that, more infrastructure is being

built around the whole project.

On google maps, there are multiple developments

visible.

There is a whole site with offices and camps

close to the mountains, a Neom community with

a football field and swimming pools, and a

Neom experience center.

Since these images aren’t up to date there

are probably a lot more by now.

So, now that construction has really started,

how could this turn out?

There is nothing comparable to this in the

whole world.

So we can only speculate what will happen

next.

But we can say that there are basically 3

possible outcomes.

The first possibility is that construction

on the Line will come to a halt in a few months

or even years without any people moving in.

Similar to the Jeddah Tower or the Dubai Creek

Tower, it could turn into a project where

its construction status remains unclear.

In both cases, stunning renderings were shown

and great promises were made.

Construction was started and it looked like

the buildings would actually be finished.

But then everything came to a halt and no

progress has been made since.

However, this seems to be a less likely outcome

for the Line, since it is backed by an entire

country and received massive attention from

the whole world.

Getting the project even close to completion

could be a great opportunity to bring more

tourists and investors to Saudi Arabia.

The second scenario is that Saudi Arabia heavily

invests in their current plans and that over

the next decades the country really achieves

what it promised in its trailers.

Implementing certain features could definitely

be possible, like having no cars, generating

100% renewable energy, and implementing the

idea of vertical living.

However, when it comes to the sheer size of

the project, it just seems to be undoable.
We mentioned earlier that the Line is supposed
to have a similar height as the One World

Trade Center, which took around 8 years to

complete.

While that’s still a reasonable timeframe,

Saudi Arabia wants to build a structure of

similar height., but 170 kilometers in length.

This would essentially be like building a

continuous strip of 2000 One World Trade Centers.

And since the project contains two of these

lines, it would actually be like building

4000 of them.

Simply multiplied by 8 years each, we would

end up at 32,000 years.

Of course, Saudi Arabia would build them much

faster since they could start working on multiple

parts at once, but it illustrates the scale

quite well.

Essentially it would be a task for centuries.

To give you another idea, around 40,000 workers

constructed the Three Gorges Dam in China,

and it took them 17 years.

But with a height of just 180 meters and a

length of merely 2.3 kilometers, it’s tiny

compared to The Line.

But there is a third possible outcome:

Given that they have already started construction,

there might be a compromise.

At the start, we asked if this could be the

greatest megaproject humanity has ever seen

or a trillion-dollar construction mistake.

But maybe there is another option.

Like many of you in the comments of our last

video already said, Saudi Arabia could build

it, but not at the insane lengths they envisioned.

The Line is built as 5-minute walk segments,

so they could essentially build the whole
megaproject bit by bit.

Depending on the demand they could simply

extend the length when needed.

In addition, the height of the Line could

be adjusted, making the project much more

realistic and easier to build.

With half of the height, the whole concept

of vertical living remains the same and all

of the features could still be implemented.

Even if the Line is built at a much smaller

scale, it could be the world’s first modern

car-free city and open the world up to an

entirely different way of living.

Across the world, there are multiple initiatives

to make cities more car-free.

However, these have been limited to reducing

car usage rather than removing cars completely.

Most major cities are centered around the

car, so trying to change this is incredibly

complicated.

With The Line, they get to start again from

scratch.

It could be the first larger city in the 21st

century where the number of car journeys reaches

zero.

All of a community's basic amenities are intended

to be within a walkable distance.

And if not, a proposed underground railway

system can be used for longer journeys through

the entire Line.

When the first people start moving in by 2030,

they could be living in the proposed high-tech

society, but just on a much smaller scale.

So which of these outcomes is the most likely?

What are experts saying about this insane

project?
It’s a project that not many experts will
agree is feasible, particularly under the

extremely tight timeline.

Antoni Vives, chief urban planning officer

at Neom, told CNBC: “I want to be clear

about this — Neom is a complex, bold, and

highly ambitious undertaking and is most certainly

not an easy one to deliver.

But we are making strong progress, and it’s

exciting to see the vision come to life.”

On the other hand, a lot of experts not involved

in the project are mentioning other concerns.

Marshall Brown, professor of architecture

at Princeton University, told Dezeen: "There

would be so many physical and environmental

phenomena that would have to be dealt with

to achieve the incredibly minimal and singular

character that the renderings propose."

So what do you think?

Now that construction has started, will this

project succeed in some way?

Will people actually live there in the future

or will this project turn into an abandoned

megaproject?

Let us know in the comments below.

Thank you for watching and supporting our

videos and we’ll see you in the next one.