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This is how it should be: Neom seen from the north, here at the western end the city meets the Red Sea
Photo: - / AFP
The plans for the futuristic city of Neom in Saudi Arabia sound like science fiction: 170 kilometers long, 200 meters wide, 500 meters high.
Completely mirrored on the outside, cool gardens inside and room for nine million people, all connected via an underground high-speed train, yet decentralized, no journey should take more than 20 minutes.
One hundred percent of the energy should come from renewable sources.
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Blatant plans, some things have been known since 2017, even then SPIEGEL author Dominik Peters described them as "Phantasia for the Prince".
In 2021, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented the linear city design »The Line«, which cuts 170 kilometers through mountains and desert.
Now another update - and the designs look like something out of a science fiction film: it glitters and flashes, everything is sparkling clean and utopian, completely mirrored, breathtaking views.
That makes sense: A first round of financing for the project is planned for 2024, and the spectacular views are already being used to advertise this.
The first construction phase of the project is expected to cost 319 billion dollars (more than 300 billion euros), half of which is to be raised through external financiers.
The construction of the city is part of the "Vision 2030" reform plan, which aims to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy away from its dependence on oil.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hopes that Saudi Arabia as a business location will be strengthened overall: The futuristic city is said to generate so much stock market value that the Saudi stock exchange will then be one of the three largest in the world.
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Neom is expected to have 450,000 inhabitants in 2026, 1.5-2 million in 2030 and nine million in 2045.
For 2029, Saudi Arabia is applying to host the Asian Winter Games with the city complex of Trojena, which belongs to Neom.
The city should be supplied with 100 percent renewable energy, the compact design should avoid waste and be more environmentally friendly overall.
The location is "perfect" for generating electricity from wind and solar power, says the crown prince.
Bin Salman also praised Neom for his visionary urban planning.
"We're starting from scratch, why should we copy normal cities?" He hopes for a new urban lifestyle, closer to nature.
Vision – or delusions of grandeur?
But it is unclear to what extent this utopia can be implemented - and whether the result is more of a dystopia.
How sustainable it is to build a metropolis of nine million with a completely mirrored exterior in a hostile place like the scree desert of the western Arabian Peninsula is questionable.
And the arrangement as a wall 170 kilometers long and 500 meters high cuts a swath in the landscape.
The architecture critic Gerhard Matzig ridiculed the project in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" as a "titanic coke line" that looks as if "God left his ruler in the desert".
On Twitter, users draw parallels to the oversized Nazi holiday resort Prora on Rügen.
In 2020 it became known that tens of thousands of residents had to leave their villages to build the city.
"Neom is built on our blood and our bones," Saudi Arabian activist Alya Alhwaiti told SPIEGEL at the time.
Mohammed bin Salman likes to present himself as a reformer, but he repeatedly shows his brutal side.
He is said to be responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and has been waging a war in Yemen for several years.
This is symbolized by the fact that the palace for the Saudi royal family is nearing completion - long before the actual city complex.
There are fears that the city's vision is more in the dystopian direction of the science fiction genre: cyberpunk in the desert, a mix of "Blade Runner" and "desert planet".
The poor are therefore crammed together in the cigar-shaped city, possibly in narrow and gloomy apartments at the bottom of the 500-meter walls.
The rich, on the other hand, can afford properties outside the walls.
If the 500 meter walls get too tight for them, they can be chauffeured to the surrounding mountains for a summer retreat.
Or will it be reversed, the rich live in futuristic utopia, the poor build favelas in front of the gigantic walls?
On Twitter, comparisons are drawn to the 2013 science fiction film »Elysium«, in which the earth is a single slum.
Meanwhile, the wealthy retreat to a luxury space station.
With material from Reuters
