Saudi Arabia’s Dream of a Futuristic Mega-City Collides With Reality

Since Saudi Arabia announced plans to develop its Neom mega-project in 2017, it has been widely criticised by architects, engineers, and energy experts for being unattainable. Nevertheless, the Kingdom marched on, commencing works on several parts of its mega-city, including The Line (a 170-km linear city), Oxagon (floating industrial hub), Trojena (mountain ski resort), and Sindalah (luxury island). However, as projected construction costs have risen again and again, and several challenges have arisen, the government has finally decided to scrap…