‘Flora, fauna, animals’

One of 10 regions within NEOM, and situated about 50 kilometres inland from the Gulf of Aqaba, Trojena is meant to be surrounded by a nature reserve, something developers say they are trying to be mindful of as they proceed with the project.

“You cut a new road through that environment and you’ll never repair it,” Philip Gullett, Trojena’s executive director, said in an interview on its website.

“We are taking an approach whereby you realise the value that there is in the flora, fauna and animals.”

Plans for Trojena also include The Vault, a so-called vertical village that Gullett said resembles The Line, by “minimising the land take — and maximising walkability — rather than spreading all those elements out across a large space.”

The manmade lake will be filled with desalinated seawater and will be about five metres deep, Gullett said.

The elevation of the planned site for Trojena, which spans 60 square kilometres, ranges from 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) to 2,600 metres (8,500 feet).

Among those on the successful Saudi bid team for the Asian Winter Games was alpine skier Fayik Abdi, who acknowledged in a statement distributed by the OCA that, as a child, “I never believed I would ski in my homeland”.

The Asian Winter Games include competitions for skiing, snowboarding, ice hockey and figure skating — 47 events in all, 28 on snow and 19 on ice, the OCA said.

Source: TRTWorld