In 2021, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince, revealed the country’s plans to build the line. What is the line? Well, it is a smart linear city that will be constructed vertically without any roads or cars and will run purely on renewable energy. It’s a very clean vision for the future. Although they did share their plans about the line in 2021, the government has just released image renders of what the new envisioned city would look like in image renders. The city is designed to only be 200 meters wide, 500 meters tall, and a whopping 170 kilometers long. The city will house multiple communities encased in a glass facade running along the coast, eventually being able to accommodate up to 9 million residents.

The designers of the city envisioned something out of a science fiction movie, and they want facilities to just be a 5-minute walk away from people and where residents can organically bump into each other as they go about their daily errands. Although it will not have any rodes and won’t be able to accommodate cars, it will be having a high-speed rail or end-to-end transit that will take 20 minutes.

The Saudi Crown Prince said in a statement: “The designs revealed today for the city’s vertically layered communities will challenge the traditional flat, horizontal cities and create a model for nature preservation and enhanced human livability. THE LINE will tackle the challenges facing humanity in urban life today and will shine a light on alternative ways to live.”

The line is part of Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion Neom Mega City project being built in the country’s Tabuk Province. It’s a divisive initiative that’s been beset with controversy from the time it started because around 20,000 people will be forced to relocate by its construction and the residents will face eviction, belonging to the Huawei Indigenous tribe who can trace their lineage before Saudi was even founded.