From the Sand Carpet in Al-Aqeer to the Shores of Neom

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More than a hundred years ago, specifically in Al-Aqeer in 1922, Amin al-Rihani met King Abdulaziz for the first time.

The meeting did not take place in a palace, nor did Abdulaziz sit on a throne. The scene was much simpler than that: vast sands, an open sky, stars twinkling above the coast, and a fire blazing in the night.

In that place, a man sat with an idea that seemed, by the standards of that time, closer to impossible: to unite these vast distances, villages, cities, tribes, and distant regions into one homeland.

Al-Rihani described his first scene by saying: 'The first sight was on the sand, under the sky and stars, and in the light of the blazing fires around us.'

After Abdulaziz recognized and sat with him, he came out with his famous phrase: "The man in him is greater than the sultan."

Perhaps Al-Rihani, while sitting that night on the sands of Al-Aqeer, did not realize that he was not just watching a man, but witnessing the beginning of a chapter in the story of a nation.

From here, we can read the National Day not as a date we memorize, or an occasion where we retell the story of unification in the same way every year, but as the story of a grand idea believed in by a man, who then pursued it until it became a reality called the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Major transformations do not always begin from a point that everyone sees as possible. Many ideas that changed history first went through a moment that seemed impossible; if their proponents had only measured them against what was already in front of them, nothing would have changed.

Abdulaziz faced vast geography, harsh conditions, and limited resources, but he saw beyond that moment. He envisioned a homeland that could unite these distant parts and turn distance from an obstacle into a shared space.

The road was not easy, and building a stable state in that geography was not a project that could be accomplished in a short time. Even if we were to return today to that moment with all that we know, what Abdulaziz did would still be an achievement of great difficulty.

Here, the story of unification connects with what comes after. As Prince Mohammed bin Salman narrates, the unification of the country was not the end of the road, but the beginning of a new phase: a phase of building the future and expanding the limits of the possible.

History does not ask every generation to repeat the achievements of the previous generation, but to build upon them. If the founding generation gathered and unified the country, it is the responsibility of the following generations to ask: What can we build now that the homeland has become a reality? And how far can we take this reality into the future?

After more than a century, geography leads us to the other coast of the Kingdom; from Al-Aqeer on the Arabian Gulf in the east to Neom on the Red Sea in the west.

There, on different sands and under a different sky, the same question returns in a new form: If Abdulaziz sat thinking about how to build a homeland, what might a man sitting today in front of the sea, mountains, and desert think, asking: How far can Saudi Arabia reach in the next hundred years?

Here appears the vision of Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Neom is not, in essence, just a city or a collection of projects. It is an attempt to pose a broader question: Can we rethink the things we used to consider fixed? Can we design cities differently, build an economy that does not rely on a single model, and transform location, nature, and technology into elements for shaping the future?

One of the most succinct ideas of Neom regarding this question is the project 'The Line'. The idea is not just about a long city, but an attempt to redefine the city itself: a city that reduces distances, limits reliance on cars, and places humans, nature, and technology at the heart of the design.

This is why the idea seemed to many to be extremely bold, perhaps impossible. But ideas that change the shape of life do not usually start from the realm of the familiar.

Here the story of Abbas ibn Firnas comes to mind. He tried to turn the dream of flight into a real experience at a time when flight was neither a complete science nor a possible industry. He did not succeed in achieving flight in its modern form, but he opened a door that remained open for those who came after him, until flight became a reality at the hands of the Wright brothers.

The comparison is not between Ibn Firnas and Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the nature of the project, but in the audacity to imagine what did not exist. Ibn Firnas tried to change the relationship between man and the sky, while the vision of Neom seeks to redefine his relationship with the city and place.

Just as aviation did not begin with the Wright brothers, the cities of the future will not start with 'The Line' alone. However, the value of the idea is that it prompts thinking about new questions, tests the limits of what can be built, and reminds us that the city is not a fixed destiny, and that what we are accustomed to is not necessarily the best we can achieve.

Details may change, designs may evolve, and some phases may take longer. However, the value of major projects is not measured solely by the speed of their completion or their final form, but by the new doors they open and the questions they leave for future generations.

For Abdulaziz did not build a complete nation in one moment. He started a historical project that required men and generations, and a long time to become established and grow. Similarly, future projects are not measured only by what they accomplish in a year or a decade, but by their ability to transfer imagination from the margins of possibility to the heart of reality.

Between the man who sat on the sands of Al-Aqeer thinking about a nation, and the man who today looks at the shores of Neom and thinks about the future of that nation, extends more than a century of Saudi narrative.

The geography has changed, the tools have transformed, and the questions have expanded. But the thread that connects the two scenes has not been severed: at every stage, there have been those who dare to look beyond the limits of the moment.

From the sand carpet in Al-Aqeer, the idea of a homeland began. On the shores of Neom, questions about its future are taking shape.

In its grand moments, the Saudi dream has always been greater than what was possible in its time.