A new marketing campaign has been launched for Saudi Arabia’s long-running project to construct Neom, a science fiction megacity on the Red Sea.
The project’s official website has been updated, and activity on its Twitter account has increased. In addition, videos and pictures of “The Line,” a hypothetical “vertical metropolis” that would be 170 kilometers (105 miles) long and 200 meters wide, have been posted on the Neom page as part of a larger campaign.
The desert metropolis of Neom will incorporate Mirror Line. According to the Saudi prince, his nation should construct an iconic structure that endures forever, like the Egyptian pyramids. There won’t be any roads or automobiles in the “Mirror Line”; only walking is assumed.
This thing resembles elements from Destiny or the Citadel from Mass Effect, Hollywood-caliber concept art with great green neon signs all over and white terraces all around. Similar to Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s affluent section of Shanghai, It’s intriguing to observe a comparable phenomenon on our home planet.
When the House of Saud successfully constructs the Citadel from Mass Effect there, I may be doomed to face the humiliation of being known as an ignorant enemy of the House of Saud, but this is far from the worst punishment that may befall a critic of the Saudi Arabian regime.
Though it’s unlikely to be built, the Neom concept’s captivating sci-fi panoramas are evocative of some of my favorite works of fiction.
It’s also a little energizing to see someone make big plans for the future during such a gloomy period. It’s a part of a charm offensive designed to reposition a backward state that also happens to be a great consumer of US arms producers.
The murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi intelligence operatives and the kingdom’s long-running conflict in Yemen, which the BBC calls “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world,” have both hurt Saudi Arabia’s reputation in recent years.
