Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Wednesday, Aug 05, 2026

Saudi Arabia announces plans to build a floating eight-sided city

Saudi Arabia announces plans to build a floating eight-sided city

The proposed construction, called Oxagon, is set to be placed on the edge of the country's newest region in the northwest - Neom.

Saudi Arabia has announced plans to build an eight-sided city that will float on the Red Sea.

The proposed construction, called Oxagon, is set to be placed on the edge of the country's newest region in the northwest - Neom.

Neom, the flagship project of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is a planned $500 billion city-state that would cover 10,000 square miles of Saudi Arabia's Tabuk province, near its borders with Jordan and Egypt.

Neom is a combination of the Greek word neos, or 'new,' and mustaqbal, Arabic for 'future.'

The proposed construction (pictured), called Oxagon, is set to be placed on the edge of the country's newest region in the northwest - Neom

Neom, the flagship project of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is a planned $500 billion city-state that would cover 10,000 square miles of Saudi Arabia's Tabuk province, near its borders with Jordan and Egypt



It's part of an ambitious plan to wean Saudi Arabia off oil dependency and transform the country into a tech hub like Silicon Valley, while also incorporating towns, research centers, education zones, and tourist attractions.

But constructors are yet to reveal how much the project will cost or how Oxagon will float.

Plans for Neom show it will be 33 times the size of New York City and will have a 'smart' city at its centre, also called Neom.

Neom posted a video to Twitter last Tuesday claiming Oxagon will be 'home to the world's first fully automated port and integrated logistics hub.'

Neom posted a video to Twitter last Tuesday claiming Oxagon will be 'home to the world's first fully automated port and integrated logistics hub'



The project is being funded by the country's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, which the Crown Prince is the chairman for.

'Neom is an accelerator of human progress and a vision of what a new future might look like,' according to a release from January.

'It will be a destination and a home for people who dream big and want to be part of building a new model for exceptional livability, creating thriving businesses, and reinventing environmental conservation.'




Plans include flying drone taxis, a Jurassic Park–style amusement park with robotic dinosaurs, and the highest density of Michelin-starred restaurants in the world, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The region's stark landscape would be transformed by cloud-seeding machines, the world's largest coral garden, glow-in-the-dark sand, and a giant artificial moon that lights up nightly.

'Today if you go to Neom you will see construction all over, you will see earthworks going on all over, you will see regions that are being developed,' Al-Nasr told Bloomberg.

He added that 1,500 Neom employees are already working and living on site.

Plans for Neom, a $500 billion, 10,000 square mile high-tech development, reportedly include flying drone taxis, a Jurassic Park–style amusement park, and a giant artificial moon that lights up nightly.

Neom will rely on wind farms, solar power, and cutting-edge technology that transforms water into oxygen and hydrogen for fuel



Touted as the planet's largest carbon-free system, the 16-borough metropolis would rely on wind farms, solar power, and cutting-edge technology that transforms water into oxygen and hydrogen for fuel.

But Neom's developers faced some obstacles in the beginning, Al-Nasr told Bloomberg, as engineers tried to design a city around tech that don't exist yet.

Construction was originally reported to start in the first quarter of 2021.

Now that it's finally underway, the next step for Neom is to get the city-state declared a 'free zone' with different laws than the rest of Saudi Arabia.

According to Al-Nasr, that may be accomplished as early as the first few months of 2022.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
AI Is Remaking the US Economy, From GDP Growth to iPhone Prices
FIFA’s Retreat Leaves a Larger Question Over Who Guards the Game
Finland Deploys Commercial-Scale Thermal Batteries Using Crushed Rock to Store Renewable Grid Energy
Valued at $109 Million: F-35B Fighter Jet Crashes in Southern California
US Says It Has Carried Out Heavy Strikes on Iran After Attempted Attacks on Its Forces
Over 24 Hours in the Air: Qantas Airbus Completes Record-Breaking Test Flight
Arrest Warrant Issued in Lebanon for Tycoon Spotted Meeting Netanyahu in Washington
Trump says Israel ‘would not survive’ without US
Nvidia Reportedly Takes Vast Texas Data-Centre Lease to Underwrite AI Expansion
FIFA’s Private-Investment Plan for World Cup Rights Draws European Revolt
Following OpenAI's Cyberattack: 'Most Companies Still Do Not Understand What Is Coming'
OpenAI Sued After ChatGPT Allegedly Discouraged Emergency Care Before Near-Fatal Embolism
Miliband Sets Climate and International Law at Centre of UK Diplomacy
Pentagon Discloses Nearly 100 US Troop Injuries During Renewed Iran Fighting
Trump Readies New Tariffs as Temporary Global Levy Nears Expiry
High Prices Push Coffee Drinkers Toward Whole Beans and Home Brewing
Trump Draws Boos and Podium Scrutiny at Spain’s World Cup Triumph
Spain Defeats Argentina in Extra Time to Win Second World Cup
Turkey Explores S-400 Transfer to UAE in Bid to Rejoin F-35 Program
US Retaliates Against Iran After Two American Troops Killed in Jordan
Proposed U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Pact Could Permit Limited Uranium Enrichment Under International Safeguards
Why Kentucky Fried Chicken Became KFC—and Why the False Explanations Persist
Iran Claims It Destroyed Bahrain’s Main Artificial Intelligence Center in Missile and Drone Strike
Ukrainian Drones Strike Wildberries Warehouses Deep Inside Russia
Reported CIA Mission Helped Clear the UAE’s Path to Advanced US AI Chips
Artificial Intelligence Capital Fuels Markets While Governments and Regulators Face Mounting Strategic Tests
China’s Moonshot’s Kimi K3 Narrows the Gap With Anthropic Through Scale, Openness and Lower Cost
The Ledger Will Not Trust on Faith
Passenger Bound for Germany Refused to Sit Beside a Woman on a Plane — Then Slapped a Flight Attendant
Ukraine’s Leadership Rift Spills Into the Streets as Protesters Target Army Chief
The Ten World Cup Finals That Defined Football History
Smartphones Are Getting More Expensive, Sales Are Collapsing, and Even Apple Admits: "Prices Will Rise"
Leadership Change and Strategic Rivalry Redraw the Political Map
The AI Race Enters Its Infrastructure Era
Britain Nationalises British Steel to Protect Scunthorpe Production and Strategic Supply
Thomas Tuchel Faces Fierce Backlash After Tactical Retreat Costs England World Cup Final Berth
A Quiet Bastille Day: France Grapples with World Cup Heartbreak and Leftover Fireworks
Spain in Ecstasy: "We Feel Unbeatable, We Taught the Whole World a Lesson"
Harvard Astrophysicist to Lead U.S. Scientific Advisory on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
Emergency Sirens Activated Across Bahrain as Interior Ministry Issues Shelter Directives
World Cup Visitors Turn American Big-Box Stores Into Souvenir Stops
Netflix Weighs Always-On Channels, Bundles and Short-Form Video
The AI Invoice Shock: Layoffs Didn't Save Managers Money — They Cost Them More
Concern: Sexually Transmitted Bacterium Among Men Develops Antibiotic Resistance
Passenger Partially Pulled Out of Ryanair Jet After Cabin Window Fails Mid-Flight
Severe Heatwave Drives Dangerous Ground-Level Ozone Pollution Across Two Thirds of European Union
The Physical and Electronic Barriers Disrupting Domestic Wireless Networks
France and Morocco Open World Cup Quarter-Finals as Collina Defends Refereeing
Tech Pulse: The Future of AI and Screen Culture
Global News Briefing: Escalating Geopolitical Tensions and Corporate Shakeups
×