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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren Bolga bam here. The Saudi Arabia is

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Speaker 1: home to some of the world's most interesting and ambitious architecture,

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Speaker 1: but the country's newest urban project may just top them all.

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Speaker 1: The Government of Saudi Arabia unveiled plans in one for

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Speaker 1: the city of Neom, including a megastructure called The Line.

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Speaker 1: The Line is designed to be an entire city composed

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Speaker 1: of two parallel skyscrapers stretching across the northwest part of

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia near the Red Sea. Each building is planned

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Speaker 1: to be a hundred and seventy kilometers long, just over

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Speaker 1: a hundred miles and five hundred meters high. That's about

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Speaker 1: six feet taller than most of the world's tallest skyscrapers.

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Speaker 1: But both buildings together, along with an outdoor space in

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Speaker 1: between them, will be just two hundred meters wide. That's

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Speaker 1: about six hundred and fifty feet. If you think this

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Speaker 1: sounds like the setting for some kind of futuristic dystopian novel,

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Speaker 1: you're not wrong. The Line is being described as a

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Speaker 1: vertical city outfitted with exterior mirrors big enough to house

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Speaker 1: nine million people, along with everything they need, from parks

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Speaker 1: and waterfalls to high speed rail and robot maids. There

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Speaker 1: are even plans to include an artificial moon for residents

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Speaker 1: to gaze upon. With its proposed width of only six

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty feet, the line plans to rely primarily

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Speaker 1: on its height to encompass its residents in vertically layered homes, offices,

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Speaker 1: public parks, and public schools laid out in neighborhoods so

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Speaker 1: that all amenities are within a five minute walk for

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Speaker 1: all residents. It's also proposing a host of modern trappings,

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Speaker 1: including year round climate control of all indoor and outdoor spaces,

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Speaker 1: and accessibility to parks and natural elements within a two

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Speaker 1: minute walk. A plus that high speed rail is being

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Speaker 1: planned to put everything in the one hundred mile long

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Speaker 1: city within a twenty minute ride, and Saudi Arabian officials

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Speaker 1: claim the line will otherwise be devoid of roads, cars,

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Speaker 1: or emissions, and will be powered strictly by clean energy,

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Speaker 1: although details for that haven't been released yet. When complete,

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Speaker 1: the line will span thirteen square miles or thirty four

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Speaker 1: square kilometers across the desert to become a literal oasis.

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Speaker 1: Architectural renderings show the two buildings operating as one, incorporating

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Speaker 1: a verdant space in the middle filled with water features

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Speaker 1: and plants. Although a timeline was not part of the

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Speaker 1: line's announcement, initial earthwork began in October one, and it's

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Speaker 1: expected that residents will begin moving in by the year.

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Speaker 1: This deadline was shared as part of a larger countrywide

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Speaker 1: improvement plan dubbed Vision twenty that's intended to draw a

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Speaker 1: hundred million annual visitors and keep Saudi Arabia in the

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Speaker 1: renting against travel hotspots like its Gulf neighbors Dubai and

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Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi. The line is just one part of the

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Speaker 1: one trillion dollar Neon Project, an initiative announced in and

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Speaker 1: focused on the northwest part of Saudi Arabia. Along with

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Speaker 1: the line, there are plans to build a network of

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Speaker 1: airports as well as the world's largest green energy plant.

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Speaker 1: The area is intended to become so self sufficient that

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Speaker 1: it's being referred to as a country within a country

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Speaker 1: where residents might be called Namians rather than Saudia's. In

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Speaker 1: a press release from July, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin

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Speaker 1: Salman is quoted as saying Neon will be a place

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Speaker 1: for all people from across the globe to make their

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Speaker 1: mark on the world in creative and innovative ways. The

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Speaker 1: Line is a futuristic and ambitious project. Critics of Saudi

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Speaker 1: Arabia's vision initiatives say that the attempt to transition from

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Speaker 1: a crude oil economy to one powered by tourism over

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Speaker 1: books the country's most available resources, namely its competitive advantages

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Speaker 1: in higher education and research. There are also concerns about

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Speaker 1: the structures interrupting natural habitats and weather patterns. We'll have

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Speaker 1: to see how the project actually develops. Today's episode is

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Speaker 1: based on the article Meet the Line, Saudi Arabia's future

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Speaker 1: hundred and six mile one building city on housetof Works

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Speaker 1: dot com, written by laure L Dove. Brain Stuff is

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Speaker 1: production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Before

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Speaker 1: more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.