Historically, it was common for new cities to be funded in unpopulated regions, representing the expansion of a civilization into new territories, like for example the Romans founding Londinium (London), Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne), Barcino (Barcelona), and Vindobona (Vienna), or the Western powers founding Boston, New Amsterdam (New York), Buenos Aires, São Paulo and many, many other urban centers in the Americas.

Saudi Arabia is an economy famous for being built upon its gigantic energy resources of oil (and a little gas). Oil & gas represents around 40% of the Saudi’s GDP, and 70-80% of the government revenues. It is also essentially the only export of the country, with oil & gas making up 80-90% of exports. In practice, the dependency on oil is even stronger than that, as the survival of a large population in the extremely dry Saudi Arabia is dependent on a steady supply of electricity (mostly made with oil & gas) and fresh water provided by desalination stations, themselves running on electricity.

To add to the problem, the Saudi population is growing quickly, from less than 3 million in the early 1960s to 10 times more today.

NEOM was first announced in 2017. 8 years later, there is still little to be shown, and it seems that the initial goal of everything being up and running by 2030 is not going to happen. According to Bloomberg, fewer than 300,000 will live in the city by 2030, instead of the expected 1.5 million. Overall, it seems that THE LINE is the part of the project that is struggling the most, maybe unsurprisingly, as this is by far the most complex and largest element of NEOM. This is not to say that no progress is being made, with an aerial picture showing the city under construction. Named Hidden Marina, this first phase of construction should be enough to host 200,000 people.

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