Said to be the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia is now investing $500 billion in a futuristic metropolis called “NEOM,” to mainly distance itself from its heavy reliance on oil and reduce the country’s reliance on hydrocarbons. NEOM is said to lead the global stage in creating a new model for sustainable living. Its name has a larger meaning according to Al Arabiya with the first three letters “NEO” derived from a Latin word that signifies “new” the fourth character “M” stands for “Mostaqbal,” which in Arabic means “future.”

Another concept involves constructing the world’s largest buildings as part of the NEOM megacity project. According to Al Arabiya, two towers around 500 meters tall with a horizontal span of tens of miles are in the works. The skyscrapers would run from the Red Sea coast to the desert. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 828 metres (2,717 feet), is currently the world’s tallest man-made tower, but they want to beat it.

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