What Happened to The Line, Saudi Arabia's 170km City?

In 2021, Saudi Arabia unveiled a city one hundred and seventy kilometres long. In 2026, work on it has been paused. What was announced, what was actually built, and what does it teach us about the Gulf's giant plans? In this episode of Gulf 2050 we apply the same three questions to NEOM and The Line: Is it announced? Is it being built? Is it finished? 0:00 The city that looked like science fiction 0:30 Where NEOM began (2017) 1:26 What was promised: The Line, Trojena, Oxagon, Sindalah 2:44 The 2024 cutback 3:10 The cost questions 3:45 The 2026 pause 4:23 What was actually built 5:02 Why megaprojects go wrong 5:58 Was The Line a failure? 7:46 Four questions to ask about any megaproject 8:24 What is left Subscribe to Gulf 2050 to keep track of which of the region's giant plans are real. Note: figures come from public news reports and are attributed as such in the video. This channel is for information only, not financial advice. Main sources: Semafor (May 2026), Euronews (January 2026), Dezeen and Gulf Business (Asian Winter Games moved to Almaty), Bent Flyvbjerg's research on megaproject cost overruns. #NEOM #TheLine #SaudiArabia CREDITS Music: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0 — The Descent, The Complex, At Launch, Shadowlands 1 Horizon, Magic Forest, Immersed CC BY 4.0: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Footage and images: Pexels, Wikimedia Commons, NASA (public domain). No AI-generated images. Full attribution list with links: see pinned comment.