The video begins ominously: "For too long, humanity has existed in dysfunctional and polluted cities that ignore nature."
"Now, a revolution in civilisation is taking place."
Cue scenes of a futuristic city being constructed in the desert, with every conceivable high tech addition.
"The Line: a city that delivers new wonders for the world," the video concludes.
If you've scrolled through social media recently, there's a chance you've seen something like this two-minute clip in your newsfeed.
Snippets have been popping up across platforms like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, promoting Saudi Arabia's planned utopian city known as The Line.
And since it was posted to Twitter on July 26 by the Saudi Press Agency, the video has had more than 1.4 million views.
But what is The Line? And why is it all over social media?
A linear megacity
Announced by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (also known as MbS) in late July, this futuristic city's latest concept is a 170 kilometre long, 500 metre tall continuous linear structure encased within a mirrored facade.
Inside, the vertically layered megalopolis will provide up to 9 million people with a "world-class quality of life", produce zero carbon and rely on autonomous artificial intelligence. It's set to be completed by 2045.
The megacity will be within Neom, the ambitious urban development project announced in 2017.
"Originally, [The Line was] to be a linear city that would have had perhaps separate structures, but [now it's] a very thin, very narrow, very long city. [It's] an idea that has some architectural and historical precedent, but had never been done on this scale before," Vivian Nereim tells ABC RN's Late Night Live.
Nereim is a Bloomberg News reporter and Saudi Arabia's longest serving foreign correspondent. Earlier this year, she published a lengthy feature about Neom.
"[The idea] began to transform and get bigger and get stranger, and now it's an idea to build essentially … two continuous structures that are parallel to each other and have this verdant interior between them," Nereim says.
"And they're supposed to be essentially the biggest buildings ever built in history .... these mirrored facades that look like a giant futuristic mirage in the desert."
Who will pay for it?
Neom's original aesthetics were conceived by Hollywood production designers who had worked on TV series like Westworld and films like Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, Nereim explains.
Now, having been through numerous iterations, the megacity's designs are estimated to cost around US$500 billion ($745 billion).
It's a sum that Nereim says is too high for the country to completely bankroll, despite construction having already commenced and Saudi Arabia's "pretty immense resources".
Hence the push for investors.
"[Saudi Arabia is] hoping to attract sovereign funds and foreign investors and they're going to do an IPO of Neom to help finance part of it as well," she says.
"So I think the financing is definitely going to be a big struggle."
The cost raises questions as to why Neom and The Line are being created in the first place.
Nereim suggests one explanation may be to do with establishing the Crown Prince's legacy.
"It's something that [MbS] really cares about deeply as representing his impact on Saudi Arabia. It's kind of the crown jewel of his whole economic and social transformation plan," she says.
A 'white elephant' project?
Dr Jessie Moritz, a lecturer at the Australian National University's Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, agrees that some see the projects as part of Saudi Arabia's attempt to encourage the development of new sectors.
However, she says others think that these construction projects are probably not the best way for diversifying the economy.
"There's lots of aspects of the project that look like a wishlist, rather than a realistic plan for developing a city that's going to create the technologies and the things that Saudi Arabia would need for its post-oil future."
Dr Moritz adds that this isn't the first time Saudi Arabia has announced new cities intended to help foster new non oil-dependent sectors.
"Every ruler seems to become a little bit preoccupied with flagship projects, which I would call 'white elephant projects'," she adds.
A similar example is King Abdullah Economic City, announced by the former king of Saudi Arabia in 2005 alongside five other cities.
According to Dr Moritz, the plan for this megacity, which was the only one to be built, was to rely on the latest technologies and infrastructure to bring in foreign investment. Something that ultimately didn't happen to the scale envisioned by Saudi Arabia.
"So Neom is like that, but on steroids," Dr Moritz says. "And so they're hoping that by creating all of this interest online, that it's going to generate that demand for what they're offering."
Nation branding
Dr Moritz says the social media campaigns for both Neom and The Line are a pitch to international investors, as well as the wider global community.
"Of course, there are going to be Saudi domestic actors there too, but there's a reason why it's been advertised so prominently internationally."
Another purpose of social media amongst Gulf nations, according to Dr Moritz, is nation branding.
"Saudi Arabia is trying to brand itself as economically and socially progressive, relative to where it was pre-2015. Not politically progressive at all, but economically and socially progressive," says Dr Moritz.
"And that entails a massive image [overhaul]. Those PR companies have been receiving enormous contracts to try and help Saudi Arabia with this."
This push is important for Saudi Arabia considering the Crown Prince's alleged involvement in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the country's reputation on human rights and its continued persecution of women
Dr Moritz says these campaigns are also about domestic public relations.
According to the ANU lecturer, roughly 90 per cent of Saudi Arabians use social media, and that "over 50 per cent of Saudis are under the age of 35".
Data from the Central Intelligence Agency indicates that the median age of Saudi Arabia is around 31 years old.
"So it's not even just that social media is big [in Saudi Arabia]. It's that social media is everywhere," she says.
"With this really young population and this incredibly engaged community on social media, that online space has become really important for Saudi governance.
And the Crown Prince is young. "He's part of this new generation and his huge project [is] Vision 2030. And Neom is all wrapped up in the importance of this online technology."
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