
NEOM: Line City in the Saudi Desert (Sponsored By Hugh and Connie Fitzpatrick)
Fri, Jun 23
|CLE Lecture Hall


Time & Location
Jun 23, 2023, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
CLE Lecture Hall, 348 S 5th St, Highlands, NC 28741, USA
About the Event
Would you like to live in a 170-km long city? How about in the desert, where summer highs exceed 130 degrees? Does it sound crazy? Not to Saudi Arabia's future king, Muhammad bin Salman, who is trying to transform his regressive kingdom into a modernist utopia. Part of "Saudi Arabia 2030," a plan to diversity the country's oil-based economy in the next 25 years, the city will be built in a long line along the Red Sea Coast. Its name, which is a combination of the Greek word for "new" and the Arabic word for "future," aims to house 9 million people, who will be able to get all the services they need by walking no more than five minutes. The Line, as its known, will have an airport, a major port, and agricultural land on both sides, growing specially designed genetically modified crops that can withstand the extreme desert…