The Line City: A Revolution in Civilization or a Desert Mirage?

Imagine a structure slicing through the vast, sun-scorched landscape of the Saudi Arabian desert—a continuous, mirrored skyscraper 170 kilometers long, 500 meters tall, yet only 200 meters wide.¹ This is The Line city, a breathtakingly ambitious project that aims to house nine million people in a single, linear building. It stands as the spectacular centerpiece of NEOM, a futuristic megaproject that forms the cornerstone of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Vision 2030—a national strategy to pivot the kingdom’s economy away from its long-standing dependence on oil.³

The official vision for The Line city is nothing short of a civilizational revolution. It promises a “cognitive city” with no roads, no cars, and zero carbon emissions, where all of life’s daily necessities are just a five-minute walk away.¹ This utopian dream, however, is shadowed by immense and complex realities. The project is a tapestry of staggering engineering challenges, spiraling costs that reach into the trillions, and profound environmental and human rights controversies that question its very foundation.³

This report provides an exhaustive analysis of The Line, dissecting its visionary engineering, charting its turbulent construction progress, and critically evaluating the financial, ethical, and environmental feasibility of building what is arguably the world’s most ambitious city. More than just an architectural endeavor, The Line represents a high-stakes gamble on a post-oil future and a powerful symbol of Saudi Arabia’s desired transformation on the world stage. Its ultimate success or failure will reverberate far beyond the realms of urban planning, defining a nation’s global standing and the credibility of its ambitious Vision 2030 for decades to come.

Deconstructing the Vision: What is “Zero Gravity Urbanism”?

At the heart of The Line city’s philosophy is a radical concept known as “Zero Gravity Urbanism.” This approach completely abandons the horizontal sprawl that has defined cities for centuries. Instead, it proposes a vertical layering of all city functions—living, working, and leisure—stacked neatly on top of one another.⁸ The primary objective is to create an incredibly high-density footprint that not only enhances the human experience but also preserves 95% of the surrounding land for nature, a direct response to the environmental crises fueled by traditional urban expansion.¹

This vertical city is organized into three distinct, interconnected layers ⁵:

1. The Surface Layer: This is the pedestrian’s domain. Free of cars and roads, this top layer is designed for people, featuring parks, residential homes, schools, and offices. The layout ensures that all essential amenities are accessible within a five-minute walk, promoting a healthier lifestyle and fostering spontaneous community interactions.¹
2. The Underground Service Layer: Hidden from view, this layer is the city’s logistical backbone. It houses essential infrastructure and facilitates automated, zero-emission deliveries and services, ensuring the surface remains uncluttered and serene.⁵
3. The Underground Transport Layer (“The Spine”): Deep beneath the surface lies The Spine, a high-speed rail system engineered to traverse the city’s entire 170-kilometer length in a mere 20 minutes. This eliminates the need for long commutes, a cornerstone of The Line’s promise to give time back to its residents.⁴

The “Cognitive City” and the Paradox of Control

The Line is designed to be more than just a smart city; it is envisioned as the world’s first “cognitive city.” Its entire operation is to be managed by a sophisticated Artificial Intelligence system that will oversee everything from energy distribution and transportation logistics to waste management and predictive public services.⁵ The system is intended to learn and adapt, creating unprecedented efficiencies. An early proposal even suggested that residents could be paid for submitting their personal data to help optimize the city’s functions.⁵

This vision, however, presents a fundamental paradox. The project is marketed as a “human-centric” city that prioritizes well-being, yet its operational model depends on a pervasive AI that requires mass data collection from its inhabitants.¹ This raises critical questions about privacy and autonomy. In a nation with a documented history of using cyber-surveillance to monitor and suppress dissent, the promise of a city that constantly “predicts and reacts to what we need” could easily be a marketing veneer for an unprecedented level of social control, blurring the line between a convenient utopia and a digitally-enforced dystopia.⁷

The Blueprint of a Megastructure: Architectural and Engineering Marvels

The architectural vision for The Line city is as audacious as its urban philosophy. The design features two parallel, 500-meter-tall skyscrapers—taller than the Empire State Building—clad in a continuous mirrored facade. This reflective skin is intended to make the colossal structure blend seamlessly into the surrounding desert landscape, minimizing its visual impact.¹ The entire city is being constructed using a modular approach, with distinct segments or “modules” developed by a consortium of world-leading architectural firms, including the American studio Morphosis, which conceived the initial design, and Austria’s Delugan Meissl and the global firm Gensler, which are leading the design of the first phase.⁶

However, translating these stunning renders into a physical reality requires overcoming a cascade of interconnected and unprecedented engineering challenges. The project’s success hinges not on solving a single problem, but on simultaneously mastering a dozen monumental feats of engineering, where a failure in any one domain could trigger a catastrophic collapse of the entire system. The structural integrity over 170 kilometers, for example, is entirely dependent on the foundation design, which must adapt to varied terrain, all while being influenced by the unique microclimate the massive structure itself will create.

Engineering Challenges and Proposed Solutions

The technical hurdles facing the engineers of The Line are on a scale never before attempted. The following table outlines the primary challenges and the innovative solutions being developed to address them:

Engineering Challenge	Proposed Solution / Technology
Structural Integrity (170km)	Dual-core load paths, structural harmonization, and stress dissipation joints every 800 meters to manage linear and vertical loads.
Variable Terrain Foundations	Customized deep-foundation approaches: massive pile foundations for desert dunes, raft slabs for stable basins, and seismic isolation systems for tectonic zones.
Microclimate Control	Mirrored facade for solar radiation reflection, optimized building orientation, vast atriums for natural light, and airflow-driven cooling systems designed to prevent dangerous Venturi effects.
Vertical Transportation	A complex network of mega-elevators and diagonal lifts functioning like a vertical subway system, managed by AI-predictive algorithms to anticipate demand and minimize wait times.
Water Management	A closed-loop system featuring hyper-efficient desalination plants, comprehensive greywater reuse, and on-site atmospheric water harvesting technology to generate fresh water from the air.
Construction Logistics	A sophisticated supply chain relying on modular off-site manufacturing hubs, large-scale 3D printing, and AI-managed logistics to deliver materials and prevent congestion at the massive site.
Energy Systems	A fully integrated, self-sufficient grid powered by 100% renewable sources, including vast solar and wind farms, and the world’s largest green hydrogen plant to ensure a stable, carbon-free power supply.

From Render to Reality: Construction on the World’s Largest Site

While the grand vision of a 170-kilometer city remains a distant goal, the on-the-ground activity is immense and undeniable. The initial phase of The Line city has transformed a vast swathe of the Saudi desert into what is frequently called the world’s largest construction site.¹⁶

Massive earthworks have been underway since 2022, with fleets of excavators working around the clock to carve a linear trench across the landscape, moving millions of cubic meters of earth and rock each week.⁵ Following the excavation is what NEOM officials have described as the “world’s largest piling operation,” a critical step in creating the foundation for the 500-meter-tall structures.¹⁴ By early 2023, over 4,500 foundational piles had already been driven into the ground for the first module, with a target of over 16,000 for Phase One alone. Some of these colossal piles are 2.5 meters in diameter, stretch 70 meters deep, and weigh up to 850 tonnes.⁵

Several key components of the initial phase are also taking shape:

• The Hidden Marina: A massive man-made basin is being excavated near the Red Sea coast. Designed to be twice the size of any existing marina, it will be connected to the sea via a canal tunneled through The Line, allowing even large cruise ships to enter.⁵
• NEOM Stadium: Plans include a futuristic 46,000-seat stadium that will be suspended 500 meters in the air, spanning the gap between the two linear buildings.¹⁸
• Oxagon Port: The nearby floating industrial city of Oxagon is being developed in parallel and serves as the primary logistics and manufacturing hub for The Line, receiving materials and pre-fabricating modular components for the city.¹⁵

This monumental effort is supported by a workforce of over 100,000 people, housed in sprawling, purpose-built construction camps.⁵ However, this tangible progress creates a jarring disconnect with the project’s official projections. All of this massive activity—the world’s largest piling operation, the round-the-clock excavation—is currently focused on building what will amount to a 2.4-kilometer segment by 2030.⁸ This represents less than 1.5% of the advertised 170-kilometer length, suggesting that the grand vision may serve primarily as a powerful marketing tool, while the on-the-ground reality is, for now, a far more conventional, albeit massive, real estate development.

The Trillion-Dollar Question: Costs, Feasibility, and a Scaled-Back Reality

The most significant challenge facing The Line city is its staggering and ever-escalating cost. Initial estimates placed the project’s price tag at a formidable $100–200 billion.⁵ This figure soon became associated with the broader $500 billion budget for the entire NEOM region.² However, recent internal documents and independent analyses have revealed a far more breathtaking financial reality. The total cost to complete the full 170-kilometer vision is now estimated to be between $1.5 trillion and a mind-boggling $8.8 trillion if completed by a projected date of 2080—a figure more than 25 times Saudi Arabia’s entire annual budget.⁵

This colossal undertaking is primarily financed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).⁸ Despite a global promotional campaign, the project has struggled to attract the significant foreign direct investment needed to ease the domestic financial burden.⁵ This, combined with the volatility of global oil prices that still form the backbone of the Saudi economy, has created immense financial pressure.²⁷

Consequently, numerous credible reports from outlets like Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal have confirmed that the project has been drastically scaled back for the foreseeable future ⁵:

• Length: The ambitious 2030 goal is no longer a significant portion of the city, but a 2.4-kilometer-long initial segment.
• Population: The target for 2030 has been revised downward from 1.5 million residents to fewer than 300,000.

While Saudi officials have publicly denied that the project’s scope has changed, the PIF has reportedly hired external consultants to conduct a strategic review of The Line’s overall feasibility, signaling significant internal concerns about its viability.²⁷ The astronomical and seemingly unrecoverable costs suggest that The Line may not be intended to be profitable in a traditional sense. Instead, it appears to function as a colossal “loss leader”—an audacious, headline-grabbing venture designed to rebrand Saudi Arabia on the world stage. Its primary purpose may not be to achieve financial solvency itself, but to generate enough global buzz to attract talent, tourism, and investment to NEOM’s other, more commercially conventional projects like the Sindalah luxury island and the Trojena ski resort, thereby justifying its cost as a monumental marketing expense for the entire nation.

Cracks in the Mirror: The Environmental and Human Cost

Beneath the gleaming, futuristic facade of The Line city lies a darker reality of profound environmental and human rights concerns. The project’s utopian marketing of “enhanced human livability” and nature preservation stands in stark contrast to the methods being used to build it and the potential consequences of its existence.

The Environmental Toll

The claim of a “zero-carbon” city is immediately challenged by the immense embodied carbon of its construction. Building a 170-kilometer-long megastructure from steel, concrete, and glass is an incredibly energy-intensive process. One academic estimate suggests that the construction alone could generate over 1.8 billion tons of CO2, an amount equivalent to four years of the United Kingdom’s total emissions.³⁵

Beyond the carbon footprint, the very design of The Line poses a severe and unprecedented threat to biodiversity.

• A Wall Against Nature: The 170-kilometer-long, 500-meter-high mirrored wall will act as a deadly barrier for the estimated 2.1 billion birds that migrate annually through this critical bottleneck between Europe and Africa.³⁶ Reflective surfaces are already one of the leading causes of bird deaths globally, and a structure of this magnitude could have catastrophic consequences for numerous species. While NEOM claims it will use mitigation strategies like mapping flight paths and applying bird-friendly fritted patterns to the glass, the sheer scale of the barrier remains a subject of grave concern for conservationists.³⁷
• Ecosystem Disruption: The structure will also sever vital terrestrial migration corridors for native wildlife, fragmenting habitats and disrupting the delicate desert ecosystem.⁷ Furthermore, the city’s immense water needs will be met by large-scale desalination plants, a process that produces highly concentrated brine as a byproduct. The discharge of this brine into the Red Sea can significantly harm local marine ecosystems.³⁶

The Human Rights Crisis

The most damning criticism of The Line city is rooted in the human cost of its creation. The land designated for NEOM was not an empty desert; it has been the home of the Howeitat tribe for centuries.³⁶ The process of clearing this land has been marred by what human rights organizations and the United Nations have described as serious violations.

This creates a foundational contradiction that is impossible to ignore: The Line is marketed as a progressive utopia for “enhanced human livability,” yet its very foundation is built upon the alleged destruction of the homes, heritage, and lives of the indigenous people who were already there. The project’s motto of “putting humans first” rings hollow when confronted with the documented reality of its development.⁴

Key documented incidents include:

• Forced Evictions: Beginning in 2020, members of the Howeitat tribe were subjected to forced evictions from their ancestral lands to make way for the project.³⁸
• Violence and Repression: In April 2020, a tribe member named Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti was shot and killed by Saudi security forces after he posted videos online protesting the evictions.⁶
• Arrests and Death Sentences: Following the protests, dozens of tribe members were arrested. According to reports from ALQST and UN experts, at least five men have been sentenced to death, while others have received lengthy prison sentences of up to 50 years under Saudi Arabia’s vaguely worded anti-terrorism laws.⁶
• Migrant Worker Exploitation: The massive construction workforce, composed largely of migrant laborers, reportedly faces harsh conditions. Reports have emerged detailing “grueling hours” far exceeding legal limits, long, unpaid commutes, and a lack of sleep leading to accidents on site. These workers operate under the restrictive Kafala sponsorship system, which ties their legal status to their employer and makes them highly vulnerable to exploitation.⁷

An Urban Planner’s Verdict: Utopia or Dystopian Folly?

Beyond the financial and ethical controversies, many urban planning experts question the fundamental viability of the linear city concept itself. The design philosophy of “Zero Gravity Urbanism” treats a city as a logistical problem to be solved with engineering and AI, but this approach ignores centuries of evidence showing that cities are complex, organic systems that thrive on the very “messiness” of human interaction that The Line seeks to eliminate.

• The Inefficiency of a Line: Critics argue that a line is geometrically the “least efficient possible shape” for a city.² It maximizes the average distance between any two points, forcing residents to rely on the high-speed rail for most non-local trips. This increases overall energy consumption for transport and contradicts the goal of effortless mobility.² In a traditional, roughly circular city, the density of destinations is accessible in all directions, making walking and cycling far more practical for a wider range of journeys.
• A Single Point of Failure: The entire city’s connectivity and functionality depend on a single transportation axis: The Spine. A disruption at any point along this 170-kilometer rail line—whether due to a technical failure, accident, or security threat—could paralyze the entire city, creating a logistical and safety catastrophe with no alternative routes.⁷ Traditional cities have resilient, redundant grids of streets and transit lines that can absorb disruptions.
• Liveability and Social Cohesion: There are profound questions about the psychological impact of living permanently within a confined, 500-meter-tall megastructure. While the renders promise lush, open spaces, the reality for many residents could be a life with limited access to natural ground and open skies. Urbanists question whether genuine, spontaneous communities can flourish in such a rigidly planned and vertically segregated environment, or if it will instead foster feelings of isolation and claustrophobia.⁶

The Line represents a fundamental bet against the organic, emergent nature of cities. It replaces the complex, resilient web of a traditional urban grid with a fragile, centrally controlled line, a decision that many experts believe is a recipe for a beautiful but ultimately unlivable folly.

Conclusion: Engineering the Future or Building on Sand?

The Line city is a project of breathtaking ambition and profound contradictions. It is simultaneously a visionary blueprint for a sustainable, post-carbon future and a cautionary tale of technological hubris. It promises a revolution in human livability while being built on a foundation of alleged human rights abuses. It champions environmental preservation while carrying a colossal carbon footprint and posing an unprecedented threat to biodiversity.

The future of this audacious line in the sand remains deeply uncertain. The immense financial, engineering, and ethical challenges have already forced a significant scaling-back of its initial scope. Whether it will one day stretch 170 kilometers across the desert as a thriving metropolis of nine million people, or remain a 2.4-kilometer fragment—the world’s most expensive and controversial real estate development—is a trillion-dollar question.

What is certain is that The Line has already succeeded in forcing a global conversation about the very future of our cities, the limits of our technology, and the true price of progress. The world will continue to watch the sands of Saudi Arabia to see if this project becomes a new wonder of the world or a modern-day Ozymandias—a colossal wreck in the desert, a monument to an ambition that reached for the sky but was ultimately reclaimed by reality.⁴⁴

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is The Line city in Saudi Arabia?

The Line is a planned futuristic smart city being built in the NEOM region of northwestern Saudi Arabia. It is designed as a 170-kilometer-long, 500-meter-tall linear city composed of two parallel, mirrored skyscrapers, intended to house up to 9 million people with no cars, roads, or carbon emissions.¹

How long and tall is The Line?

The Line is planned to be 170 kilometers (about 106 miles) long, 500 meters (1,640 feet) tall, and only 200 meters (656 feet) wide.¹

What is the estimated cost of The Line?

Initial cost estimates were around $100-200 billion, but the total cost for the entire NEOM project, including The Line, is now estimated to be as high as $1.5 trillion, with some internal projections suggesting the final cost could reach trillions more over several decades.⁵

Is construction on The Line actually happening?

Yes, construction is underway. Massive excavation and foundation piling operations have been ongoing since 2022. However, the project has been significantly scaled back, with the current goal being to complete a 2.4-kilometer section by 2030, a fraction of the original 170-kilometer vision.⁵

Why is The Line controversial?

The Line is controversial for several reasons:

• Human Rights: The forced displacement of the indigenous Howeitat tribe, including the killing of a protestor and death sentences for others who resisted eviction.⁷
• Environmental Impact: The massive carbon footprint of its construction and the threat its 170km mirrored wall poses to migratory birds.³⁵
• Feasibility: Extreme costs, logistical challenges, and skepticism from urban planners about the viability and livability of a linear city.²⁷

Will The Line really have no cars or roads?

The design is based on a car-free, road-free concept. All transportation is planned to be handled by a high-speed underground rail system for long distances and by walking for all daily needs, with all essential amenities located within a five-minute radius for all residents.¹

Who are the architects designing The Line?

The initial concept was designed by the American firm Morphosis. The first phase is being led by a consortium that includes the Austrian studio Delugan Meissl Associated Architects and the global firm Gensler. Numerous other high-profile architecture firms have been involved in various design stages.⁶

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Take the Next Step

The Line represents a pivotal moment in urban development, challenging everything we know about how cities are designed, built, and inhabited. To learn more about other groundbreaking projects shaping our future, explore Mega Projects.

Disclaimer

This article is based on publicly available information, news reports, and analyses from the sources cited. The project’s scope, timelines, and cost estimates are subject to change, and the situation surrounding the human rights and environmental concerns is ongoing. This report is intended for informational purposes and does not constitute financial or investment advice.

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