This Massive New Floating ‘Turtle’ In Saudi Arabia Could Become The Largest Boat City In The World

Saudi Arabia will soon be home to the world’s first floating city after an Italian designer announced plans to build a city worth $8 billion (£6.7 billion). The projected city is expected to be completed in 2033.

Pangeos, a massive “terayacht” that may one day be an ocean-going home for 60,000 people, is designed by Lazzarini Design Studio, an Italian firm known for its insane design concepts for luxury limos, future seaports, and flying superyachts.

The 2,000-foot-wide floating city will include hotels, shopping malls, parks, a dock, and an airport.

“Translating this into a somewhat futuristic expression, Pangeos extends its length for 550 metres and measures 610 metres at its widest point – the wings,” said Lazzarini on the project’s website:

According to the design firm, the “future floating city” is separated into blocks, with rooftop parks, beach clubs, and even airplane ports. The most bizarre feature of the idea is that the superstructure will be shaped like a giant turtle.

The terayacht would hold 19 private villas and 64 apartments on each turtle wing. It would be powered by nine HTS electric motors, each capable of 16,800 horsepower, allowing the gigantic structure to cruise at a speed of five knots.

According to Lazzarini, development on the massive beast might begin as early as 2033, with a build time of eight years. However, to begin construction, a hundred hectares of sea bottom would need to be excavated and a massive dam built at King Abdullah Port, 81 miles north of Jeddah.

The floating city would be powered by a massive array of solar cells, guaranteeing an almost infinite source of green energy to power the nine electric motors.

According to the designers, the steel shell contains 30,000 separate buoyancy “cells,” making Pangeos “unsinkable.”