Saudi Arabia has announced its latest hugely ambitious construction project for the world’s longest resort rooftop sky pool at 250 m².

Treyam is billed as a ‘raised haven’: a luxury complex stretching over a desert lagoon, with a nearly half-kilometre-long swimming pool on the roof.

It’s the latest vision the kingdom has unveiled as part of its plans to build a massive new futuristic city called NEOM. But it remains to be seen whether the project will ever be built.

The team behind NEOM said: ‘Treyam offers its guests a bold design with minimal land intervention, offering guests an elevated retreat where they can relax, recharge and enjoy the majestic natural environment.

‘Strategically located opposite the opening of one of the most beautiful, azure lagoons on the southern side of the Gulf of Aqaba, Treyam forms a luxurious gateway that invites guests to experiment with an active lifestyle.’

The design shows the 250-room hotel and resort and the 450-metre-long rooftop infinity pool, which sits 36 meters above the water.

It is said that guests will feel like they are floating with ‘breathtaking panoramic views of the lagoon’.

Designs show that the bridge’s facade will create a sunset-like illusion from a distance.

The upper and lower floors offer panoramic views of the tidal lagoon below and the vast sky above, blending into the landscape while maintaining the natural integrity of the coastline.

NEOM says it is designed for adventure and effort.

The resort offers a variety of activities such as sailing, diving and other water sports, as well as land sports.

There will be a luxury spa and gourmet restaurants.

NEOM made the announcement about the latest plan yesterday.

MailOnline contacted NEOM to find out what stage of planning the project is at and whether construction has actually started yet, as well as the expected cost and expected completion date.

Treyam adds to a growing list of extremely optimistic projects that are all part of the new city of NEOM in Saudi Arabia.

NEOM was launched in 2017 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

It lies in a vast area of ​​previously largely empty land, about the size of Belgium.

Located on the northern coast of the Red Sea, the location has a slightly cooler climate than the surrounding area.

NEOM has captured global attention since its inception with its hugely ambitious plans – and in terms of ambition, one project clearly takes the top spot.

The line was announced in July 2022 and construction began shortly afterwards.

It is a building straight out of a science fiction film, a half kilometer high, 200 meter wide, completely mirrored strip with a length close to the distance from London to Birmingham.

The idea of ​​having an entire, virtually self-sufficient society within the building arose from the idea that if an urban area is in a straight, narrow line, transportation will be more efficient.

The line would have no roads or cars and would be served by ultra-rapid transportation systems.

Proposed buildings such as the 170-meter-long Line, whose dimensions are large enough to create a self-sufficient environment, are known as arcologies.

When the Line is completed, it will be by far the largest building ever built on Earth.

The Line, like the rest of NEOM, has received a lot of criticism.

Some have said that it is Saudi Arabia that is trying to distract the world’s attention from their human rights abuses.

Others say there is hypocrisy in the environmentally damaging construction processes that create supposedly environmentally friendly buildings.

NEOM reportedly has a completion date of 2050 – and if so, it is believed it will have cost a sum of $1 trillion (£783.5 billion) by then.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the first stop of a trip to the Middle East, amid efforts to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas on a pause in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages and a flow of more humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.

The visit to the city of Jeddah comes as the Biden administration hopes to convince Saudi Arabia to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, a long-term goal that the United States considers important for stabilizing the broader Middle East.

The State Department said Mr Blinken would be in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and Egypt on Thursday to meet with the two countries’ “leadership”. No specific officials were mentioned.

Mr Blinken told reporters in Manila on Tuesday that his discussions in the Middle East would also include post-war plans for Gaza and the wider region.

He also said he would focus on “the right architecture for lasting regional peace,” an apparent reference to diplomacy between the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia to reach a joint agreement.

Such a pact would likely require Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians in return for its first-ever formal diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia. In turn, the Saudis want the United States and Israel to support them the establishment of a civilian nuclear program on Saudi soilas well as greater military support from Washington.

After a period of deep tense relationsSaudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Biden found common ground earlier this year in exploring a potential deal in which Saudi Arabia would recognize Israel and establish diplomatic ties.

Many Arab governments, including Saudi Arabia, have done so as well refused for a long time to establish diplomatic ties with Israel before the establishment of a Palestinian state. Over the past decade, however, that calculus has shifted, as the region’s authoritarian leaders have weighed negative public opinion about a relationship with Israel against the economic and security benefits it could provide—and what they could obtain in return from the United States.

Framing the prospect of building bonds Working with Israel as a way to gain greater rights for the Palestinians could allow Prince Mohammed to limit popular backlash in his own country, where hostility toward Israel and support for the Palestinians is widespread.

Mr Blinken’s trip comes as negotiators from Israel have joined officials from Egypt and Qatar hold meetings in the Qatari capital Doha, aimed at achieving a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants.

PARIS Fury has shared a moving series of photos from reuniting with husband Tyson in Saudi Arabia after making the nine-hour flight alone.

The 34-year-old has left the couple’s seven children at home so they can watch a major boxing event in Riyadh tomorrow night.

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Earlier in the day, Paris shared via Instagram stories that she was traveling with her custom Louis Vuitton suitcase and a large black Chanel flap bag.

The French fashion house’s Horizon 55 Suitcase will cost you a whopping £2,750, while her Chanel lambskin handbag is estimated to be worth around £4,000.

Landing in the Middle East wearing a black satin skirt, white silk shirt, blazer and Louis Vuitton belt, Paris shared adorable photos hugging heavyweight champion Tyson.

The Gypsy King arrived a day before her, before rival Anthony Joshua took on his former opponent Francis Ngannou in a fight on Friday evening.

He was also in the Middle East last month to prepare for his undisputed world heavyweight title match with Oleksandr Usyk.

The couple, from Morecambe, Lancs, have been married for 15 years after a lavish ceremony in 2008.

They welcomed their seventh child, a son named Rico, last September.

Their other children are Venezuela, 14, Prince John James, 11, Prince Tyson II, seven, Valencia, five, Prince Adonis Amaziah, five, and Athena, two.

Earlier this week, Paris was spotted getting a glow-up at a local hair salon, which we can now reveal was before her trip to Saudi Arabia.

She debuted a brand new hairstyle after revealing she’s been “so tired lately” juggling her huge brood.

The blonde mom is known for her glossy locks that are always primed and curled before she leaves the house.

During the appointment, Paris switched up her normal hairstyle with layers and wispy bangs.

A few hours earlier, she shared on Instagram stories that “it’s that time again” and that she was “vibrating to tunes in the hairdresser.”

And it looks like the pampering session is long overdue, as Paris later admitted she’s been “so tired lately” taking care of her mammoth brood.

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN has collected more than £1million in prize money this season after winning the inaugural World Masters of Snooker in Saudi Arabia.

The Rocket shone with two centuries as he defeated reigning world champion Luca Brecel 5-2 in the final, before next year’s controversial Gold Ball prize was DOUBLED TO $1 million.

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It represents his 79th professional title and for his efforts he received a check for £250,000 from Saudi paymasters.

This money goes along with the two separate £250,000 checks he received for winning the UK Championship and the Masters – plus £210,000 for lifting the Shanghai Masters at the start of the 2023-2024 season.

No one has made more money in a single snooker season, but to be honest, few players have ever played the sport as brilliantly as O’Sullivan.

The world number 1 was in great form as he defeated John Higgins 4-0 in the quarter-finals at 3am local time on Wednesday morning.

In the semi-finals he won 4-1 against Judd Trump before showing the Belgian Bullet why he is the best there is.

The 20-point Gold Ball gimmick, which offered an astonishing £400,000 bonus prize, never came into play during the three days in the Middle East as no one put together a 147.

But straight after the final, Saudi advisor Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Authority for Entertainment, took to the microphone to announce the special prize for reaching 167, which could reach $1 million – £800,000 by 2025.

O’Sullivan immediately joked: “I’ll make it [the golden ball] next year – you don’t want to get it all at once.

“I thought I would win the tournament this year and get the golden ball next year.”

The Rocket added: “It was a fantastic tournament, a beautiful venue.

“The crowd was great. It’s been a long time since we came to the Middle East.

“We have been treated so fantastically well. The players enjoyed it. The hospitality was fantastic. The culture here is fantastic.

“These are the tournaments you really want to play in. One table, a great audience. The music played between frames.

“It was like we were in some kind of rave. Like going back 25 years when I was young. It made it lively. It feels like a really fun festival. Everyone wants to go to Saudi Arabia.”

Brecel, 28, said: “I have enjoyed the last few days. The location is great. The audience was fantastic.

“Since I arrived in Saudi Arabia, I had the feeling that the people were very nice. I’m grateful to be able to play here. Hopefully it will be here for a long time.”

“The music was going between frames, it was like we were in some kind of rave – 25 years ago when I was young,” O’Sullivan said on Eurosport.

“It feels like a really fun festival.”

Tabuk Province, Saudi Arabia. A barren corner of the country, with little that’s apparent to recommend it as a destination but endless sunlight and abundant salt water.

Nevertheless, Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince and de facto leader of the region, saw this rocky landscape and envisaged something epic: a series of futuristic developments, space-age cities, and luxury resorts. A desert ‘utopia’ named Neom that encompasses an area of around 10,200 square miles and includes 12 named projects, from industrial port city Oxagon, the world’s largest floating structure, to Sindalah, a sea-horse-shaped resort island for the super-wealthy.

Then there’s The Line, a gleaming, mirrored city envisaged as a hermetically sealed wall cutting through the desert. The Neom project cannot be accused of a lack of ambition. 

It is reported to be the crown prince’s attempt to diversify the Saudi economy, bolster tourism, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and establish the region as a technology and innovation hub on the world stage.

Reports of the cost of the project vary, starting at $500billion (£396billion) to estimates it will cost in excess of $1trillion (£792billion), if the 12 projects reach completion.

The Line is Neom’s flagship development. Announced in 2021, its sheer ambition sparked headlines – and controversy. The ‘vertical Manhattan’ is intended to be 170 kilometres long (105 miles), comprised of two 500-metre-tall (1,640ft) parallel towers that house nine million residents.

Each of the dual towers will feature mirrored facades, and include residential and business properties. Walkways will connect the structures, while a high-speed train will run beneath.

There will be no roads or cars. Daily essentials are planned to be within a five-minute walk for residents. Volocopters, delivery drones and robot servants will be on hand to serve. Designers say it will run entirely on renewable energy.

When completed, it will be the largest megastructure in the world.

Some of the proposed details are eye-catching, involving technology that has not yet been developed in some cases. 

Rain-starved desert will be addressed with cloud-seeding machines to promote precipitation. There are plans for on-site healthcare scientists who modify residents’ genes to make them stronger, an artificial moon lighting the sky, and plans for The Line to have the highest rate of Michelin-starred restaurants per inhabitant.

Meanwhile, the design for Aquellum sounds vaguely akin to the lair of a Bond villain: per Neom’s website, it will be an ‘ultra-luxury upside-down skyscraper’ completely encased in a mountain, undetectable to anyone outside. Its inhabitants will access their home from a secret entrance via the Aqaba coast, on the Red Sea.

According to Neom, once inside Aquellum, ‘a dynamic boulevard winds through the courtyard, connecting diverse social spaces, world-class hospitality, immersive arts, events, shopping and dining. A signature space, dubbed ‘The Generator’, houses unique research labs for disruptors, innovators, and creative thinkers, offering a platform where the future is reimagined.

The Neom site adds: ‘An omnidirectional internal transit system facilitates easy access to upper floors, transporting residents and visitors to their homes and hotels, ascending to rooftop gardens with breathtaking coastal views.’

Sindalah is an 840,000-square-metre man-made island in the shape of a seahorse, being developed into a resort aimed to serve the yachting community (and ultra-wealthy). When completed it shall boast an 86-berth marina and yacht club. It is predicted to be the first completed project, in 2025. 

The second project anticipated to reach completion is Trojena, set to be operational in 2026. It’s being built atop Tabuk, the region’s tallest mountain range.

This tourism destination will include the first major outdoor skiing destination in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations and will host the 2029 Asian Winter Games.

According to Neom, it will ‘showcase the next generation of luxury living, with a limited and exclusive offering of apartments, chalets, mansions and ultra-luxury mansions that boast unparalleled privacy, inspirational architecture and a seamless journey with nature’.

The remaining projects are Leyja, a nature reserve; Utamo, an arts and entertainment centre; Norlana, a coastal residential area; Xaynor, a beach club; Zardun, an eco-tourism resort; Epicon, a luxury tourist resort; and Siranna, a hexagonal luxury resort.

There is concern that Neom won’t be the sustainable mecca it is being sold as.

In a study of potential biological conservation issues for 2024, Science Direct raised concerns mirrored megastructure The Line is ‘likely to pose a substantial risk to migratory species, particularly passerine birds’. Reflective surfaces are identified as one of the biggest causes of bird deaths each year.

The report says: ‘The magnitude of The Line may pose a novel threat to the eastern populations of the estimated 2.1billion migratory birds of more than 100 species that migrate from Europe to Africa in autumn each year, for which this area forms a bottleneck.’

Environmental campaigners are sceptical, as well, declaring claims for The Line’s planned sustainability as ‘greenwashing’. Saudi Arabia is the second largest oil producer in the world.

Amnesty International has also voiced alarm at the project, particularly regarding the forced displacement of members of the region’s Howeitat tribe to accommodate the development. Some 20,000 Saudis have been moved so far.

In 2023, the non-government organisation ALQST, which works to protect Saudis against human rights violations, reported that three members of the Howeitat tribe had been sentenced to death for criticising the displacements. 

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By James Cohen

Published: 6:50 AM EST, February 22, 2024 | Updated: 10:26 EST, February 22, 2024

THE inaugural Riyadh season of World Masters of Snooker will be the first ever WST event to take place in Saudi Arabia.

A brand new tournament will feature eight of the world's best players and two wildcards.

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The top eight stars in the official world rankings at the end of the Players Championship (February 19-25) automatically qualify to participate.

In addition to the best eight stars, two more wild cards will be added to complete the field of ten players.

Luca Brecel will be the top seed after winning the World Snooker Championship last year.

World No. 1 Ronnie O'Sullivan has already confirmed he will take part in the Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker.

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When is the Riyadh World Masters of Snooker season?

• The Riyadh World Masters of Snooker season starts on Monday, March 4.
• The tournament ends on Wednesday, March 6.

What are the Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker Rules?

Each game is played according to the rules and regulations of World Snooker.

However, there will be a special new 23rd ball in use, known as the Riyadh Season ball.

The new ball is worth 20 points and cannot be pocketed until all other balls have been successfully removed from the table if a player is on course to make a maximum break to make 167.

What has been said?

HE Advisor Turki Alalshikh said: “We are thrilled to be hosting our first ever professional snooker tournament in the Kingdom.

“Snooker is watched and played by millions of people around the world and we look forward to welcoming some of the greatest players and snooker fans to our country and showing them what the Saudi Arabia and Riyadh season has to offer.”

Matchroom COO Steve Dawson said: “It is a great privilege for the World Snooker Tour to partner with HE Advisor Turki Alalshikh to host an event in Saudi Arabia for the first time.

“This is a huge breakthrough for snooker in new territory, and we see this as the start of a new adventure for our sport in the region.

“We look forward to being part of the Riyadh season at this fantastic new event with the best players in the world.

“We will be honored to bring our sport to the great city of Riyadh, and for local fans this will be their first chance to see some of snooker's greatest heroes of all time.”

Johnny Depp has struck up a bizarre friendship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after the kingdom's ruling family invested millions in the actor's latest film.

MBS has spent billions under his Vision 2030 plan to turn Saudi Arabia, plagued by allegations of human rights abuses, into a cultural and economic powerhouse by investing in the arts, sports and forging personal ties with stars.

Depp, 60, first met MBS, 38, after filming Jeanne du Barry, in which Saudi Arabia invested millions, in the summer of 2022.

'They made a real connection. It's a shock to many people who know [Depp]but it's what happened to a friend of Depp told Vanity Fair.

Both men have faced a reckoning in recent years in public perception of their carefully crafted images.

Depp was found to have abused his ex-wife Amber Heard domestically when he lost a defamation case in Britain in 2020.

Two years later, a series of disturbing details, including allegations of sexual abuse, were made public after he successfully sued Heard for defamation two years later.

MBS, once a favorite among Western leaders who saw him as a great reformer, irrevocably damaged his image by approving the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Depp emphasizes that Saudi Arabia is undergoing a 'cultural revolution'.

“While I admit I was initially a bit naive about what was happening in the region, I have since experienced firsthand the cultural revolution taking place there,” Depp told Vanity Fair.

The country has “emerging young storytellers who radiate fresh ideas and artwork, a thriving film infrastructure and a renewed curiosity for innovation,” she explained.

Adding, “I had the opportunity to meet people from different parts of the region who were the most hospitable and shared with me their culture, their traditions and their stories.”

MBS has spent hundreds of billions on sports, tourism, the arts and other ventures such as real estate to free the country from its dependence on oil money and become a diversified economic powerhouse.

MBS's Vision 2030 plan has made the entertainment industry, including film production, a key focus as it increases the kingdom's tourism and cultural perception, but also encourages the country's 30 million residents to do their leisure spending domestically .

The Kingdom's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has invested millions in setting up the LIV Golf Tournament, attracting players such as Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia.

The PIF also provided most of the money for a Saudi takeover of Newcastle United football club in 2021, a controversial deal that became a hot potato for the British government.

“We are making up for lost time and ensuring that our country realizes its potential,” an adviser to the Saudi government told Vanity Fair.

Depp previously had contact with another Saudi prince, Abdulaziz bin Fahd, but a member of his entourage was convicted of raping a woman in 2012 at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, where the prince had rented out a block of rooms.

Prince Abdulaziz stopped appearing in public in 2017 after he was detained by MBS along with 300 of Saudi Arabia's richest men on suspicion of corruption.

The prince eventually resurfaced, smiling for a photo with MBS, but has kept a very low profile since.

The sudden disappearance reportedly made Depp wary of meeting any more Saudi royals for the first time.

However, talks were held and in July 2022 he met Prince Badr, the kingdom's Minister of Culture.

A few months later, he flew to Jeddah for the 2022 Red Sea Film Festival and during the trip he met the Crown Prince.

Depp visited again in early 2023 and was invited to MBS' royal camp in the mountains.

The actor also flew several times by helicopter to MBS's yacht, one of the largest in the world.

The two men are now good friends, according to Vanity Fair, and friends of Depp told the publication that he values ​​the friendship and wants nothing in return.

However, Depp's team is in talks with the Saudi government over a seven-figure deal that will allow him to attend events and shoot films in the country, the outlet reported.