Trojena, which aims to be the first Saudi ski resort, is in the midst of construction. These are progressing well: the first buildings are visible, like the roads.
Work on Saudi Arabia’s future ski resort has started well. Trojena, part of Neom’s vast project with the dystopian city The Line, is emerging.
Where is the work on the construction of Trojena?
A video, published on YouTube on February 15, 2024 on the official Trojena account, shows that the work is progressing: in addition to certain people questioned about the safety standards put in place on the site, we can see images of the construction site.
The latter is immense: the video shows an impressive number of cranes, excavators, construction equipment, and workers busy. Trojena is becoming a reality, and the first buildings are appearing.
Construction is underway in Trojena
The first roads seem to be being finalized, and we can even see that a first building has emerged from the ground. A city begins to take shape. Trojena’s plan, however, seemed unrealizable at first glance. The city must accommodate a huge artificial lake, a mountain village, luxury villas, hotels, and above all a ski resort, with open-air slopes. This last part was of great concern, given the geographical location of the kingdom. Saudi Arabia is in fact made up largely of desert, and is one of the hottest places on the planet.
Even so, the Neom website insists that the mountainous region where Neom is being built is colder than the rest of the country. In the video, some images show landscapes covered with a thin layer of snow, and a speaker explains that he did not expect such cold temperatures.
However, this thin layer of snow is far from sufficient to operate ski slopes, and even less to be the scene of sporting competitions. Neom must, however, host the Asian Winter Games in 2029, during which ski races are planned. If the work has indeed started, it is not said that all the places announced in the Trojena plan have been finalized – we are thinking in particular of the artificial lake, absent from the photos.
When will the work be finished?
The future resort must officially welcome its first inhabitants and the first tourists at the end of 2026. The date, however, seems very optimistic: at the start of 2024, there is not yet really any infrastructure to speak of. Some of the project’s most iconic locations, such as the ski slopes and the artificial lake, are not featured in the video, and construction appears not to have started.
Other establishments in Trojena are due to open their doors in 2027, such as a hotel from the French group Accor. The resort is also due to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029, another very important deadline for the future of the city. It remains to be seen whether the work will be finished at that time.
Where is Trojena located?
Trojena is located in Neom, a special economic zone in the northwest of Saudi Arabia. The city is more precisely built in the Midian Mountains, a region about fifty kilometers from the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. Trojena will be located at an altitude between 1,500 and 2,600 meters above sea level.
What is Neom?
Neom is a vast project announced by the crown prince of the kingdom, Mohammed Ben Salmane. This is an area which is to host several very large-scale urban planning projects, such as Trojena, but also the dystopian city The Line (on which construction has also started), the floating port of Oxagon, or even the underground city of Aquellum.
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