Work begins on Saudi Arabia’s 75-mile-long megacity, The Line: Drone footage shows excavators digging the foundations for £440billion project

• Clip was released by Ot Sky, an aerial photography company and shows diggers at the site in Saudi Arabia 
• The site is 75 miles long and is being built as part of the Neom development, a vast desert complex 
• Neom will also feature artificial ski resort and an octagonal port city as well as elevators and robots 

Newly-released drone footage shows excavators starting work on digging the foundations for the £440 billion megacity The Line in Saudi Arabia. 

The footage was recorded by Ot Sky, an aerial photography company, and shows diggers at the 75-mile long site. 

The project was launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and will be part of the vast desert complex of Neom, which will also feature an artificial ski resort, an octagonal floating port city, flying elevators, a swimming lane for commuters and robots and AI to serve its future residents. 

In the footage, excavators are seen making a trench in the desert. The trench is expected to have the foundations for the city built within it. 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=HfiWYKTgRxI%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US

In the footage, excavators are seen making a trench in the desert. The trench is expected to have the foundations for the city built within it

The huge trench can be seen going into the distance as foundations for the incredible megacity are dug out

The project was launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and will be part of the vast desert complex of Neom, which will also feature an artificial ski resort, a 100-mile vertical city, an octagonal floating port city, flying elevators, a swimming lane for commuters and robots and AI to serve its future residents. Pictured: A plan of how The Line may look 

Underneath the length of the city, there are also plans to create an underground transport system. 

The megacity, which could house up to nine million people, was announced earlier this year. Not everyone was convinced that workers could actually design the city after it was unveiled.

But the footage seems to show that the city is being built and that the dream will be realised.

Underneath the length of the city, there are also plans to create an underground transport system. Pictured: Construction workers at the site in Saudi Arabia 

Pictured: Workers arrive at The Line megacity as the area of the desert undergoes construction. The completion date is set to be 2030

Numerous diggers are seen in Saudi Arabia as workers get underway on the huge project 

Neom’s executive director for urban planning Tarek Qaddumi told Dezeen about The Line.

He said that The Line is set to ‘revolutionise our current way of life’. 

And he added that the megacity will be net-zero over its lifetime, despite scepticism from some experts on the sustainability of the project and if it will be possible to actually live there.

The aerial view of the construction work shows diggers preparing to dig the foundations of The Line 

SAUDI ARABIA: Workers chat at the site of The Line in Saudi Arabia as digging continues 

Design plans for the linear city show the sci-fi inspired interiors, with angular glass structures contorting in different shapes over an artificial river.

Trees climb up over the futuristic designs which will be fully powered by renewable energy in the sprawling tropical metropolis that looks like it could serve as a Star Wars set.

Bin Salman said he wanted his country to house a construction project as iconic and timeless as the Pyramids of Egypt. 

‘The Line is a project that is a civilizational revolution that puts humans first,’ he said at the time. 

The Line, a $1 trillion mega-project launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will be part of the vast desert complex of Neom

The Mirror Line will consist of two 1,600 feet tall buildings that run parallel to each other across 75 miles of desert, coastal, and mountain landscapes. 

Prince MBS has claimed he wants the Mirror Line to be ready by 2030, although engineers have said it could take 50 years to construct.

The building is so long that it will sit on struts to take the curvature of the Earth into account, and will also have a high speed train line running underneath its length.  

The Mirror Line will consist of two 1,600 feet tall buildings that run parallel to each other across 75 miles of desert, coastal, and mountain landscapes

If fully completed, the skyscraper will run from the Gulf of Aqaba, through a mountain range, and then extend along the coast into a desert ‘aerotropolis,’ the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Salman also said that the project aimed to allow a million residents to meet within a five-minute walk and to travel end-to-end within a 20-minute stretch.

The futuristic buildings feature a silver shine and an intricate inside, with stairwells and greenery and homes to create a linear community. 

The community of millions will also be fed through vertical farming that will be integrated into the walls of the shiny buildings and residents will reportedly pay a subscription for three meals a day.

The futuristic buildings feature a silver shine and an intricate inside, with stairwells and greenery and homes to create a linear community. 

The trillions-of-dollars project is expected to house five million people after its completion and a high-speed train will run underneath the buildings, according to the Wall Street Journal. It will also feature a marina for boats underneath the arch of the buildings. 

The community of millions will also be fed through vertical farming that will be integrated into the walls of the shiny buildings and residents will reportedly pay a subscription for three meals a day.

Prince MBS insists the buildings will be totally carbon neutral and good for the local environment. 

The futuristic megacity in Saudi Arabia will feature two massive, mirror-encased skyscrapers that extend over desert and mountain terrain

Desert living won’t just be hot, sticky, and sandy, but the Mirror Line will also feature a sports stadium that is set to be 1,000 feet above the ground. 

Salman is also hoping the Neom, as a whole, will create thousands of new jobs and let the oil-rich country stop being so dependent on the resource for wealth, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

However, foreign investments in the Neom have not been so forthcoming as many Western countries continue to boycott the country over alleged human rights violations. Salman has been accused of ordering the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, but the Crown Prince has denied any involvement. 

Others who have fewer political scruples have questioned whether the projects devised are just too ambitious. Saudi Arabia previously abandoned plans to build a mile-high skyscraper that would have been the world’s tallest after getting into funding difficulties.

Salman is hoping to great a desert community known as Neom (pictured)

Bin Salman said he wanted his country to house a construction project as iconic and timeless as the Pyramids of Egypt

If fully completed, the skyscraper will run from the Gulf of Aqaba, through a mountain range, and then extend along the coast into a desert ‘aerotropolis’

US President Joe Biden, 79, met with the Crown Prince in July to talk over the broken relationships between the countries. Bitterness between the two subsided a little as Biden is hoping a relationship with the Crown Prince will help lower inflation rates in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

High oil prices are actually helping Salman continue forth with the Mirror Line and Neom, as it is providing funding for the expensive project, the Wall Street Journal said. 

However, Neom also faced human rights criticism when it was announced after tribes were forcibly removed from the area and security allegedly shot a resident dead. 

The community of millions will also be fed through vertical farming that will be integrated into the walls of the shiny buildings

The Mirror Line will have vegetation, including vertical farming, a high-speed train, and create thousands of jobs 

The project’s completion date is set for 2030, but builders and urban planners are struggling to resolve many questions. The project was originally set to be completed in 50 years. 

Planners are struggling to answer if residents would consider living in a high-rise building after the pandemic, the migration of animals and birds, and how to deal with the structure impacting the flow of groundwater.

Environmental planners say the sheer size and length of the Mirror Line will disrupt migratory bird patterns – and the mirrored glazing of the building could further confuse them, pouring water on the project’s desire to be planet-friendly.  

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