Pangeos: Saudi Arabia’s $8bn Turtle-Shaped Floating City

Saudi Arabia has been proposed as a location for the construction of a massive turtle-shaped yacht, dubbed Pangeos. If the project is constructed, it will become the biggest sea vessel ever built, essentially a massive floating city.

Pangeos is named after Pangaea, a supercontinent that existed roughly two hundred million years ago.

The project has been designed and proposed by Lazzarini Design Studio. The Rome-based company utilizes 3D technology to visualize designs and ideas.

The world’s biggest yacht

The proposed dimensions for Pangeos are truly gigantic. If built, the vessel would be the largest ever constructed.

The current title holder for the world’s biggest yacht is the German-built Azzam at 180.61 meters (595.55 feet) long. The biggest sea vessel ever constructed was the Seawise Giant, built by the Japanese firm Sumitomo Heavy Industries. Its length was 458.45 meters (1,504.10 ft).

The Pangeos would be even bigger than both of these giants. Its proposed dimensions are a length of 550 meters (1,800 feet) and a width of 610 meters (2,000 feet).

Staying on Pangeos

The massive sea vessel will function as a floating city. There will be enough space for hotels, shopping centers, parks, and other public spaces.

Lazzarini claims that Pangeos will be able to accommodate sixty thousand guests plus an unspecified number of crewmembers and staff.

On each side wing of Pangeos would be space for nineteen villas and sixty-nine apartments. Seventy-two terraces will be available on the rooftop shell. Some will have sea views whereas others will overlook the vessel’s central port area.

Unlike a traditional cruise ship or yacht, the Pangeos itself would be the star destination. Powered by nine 16,800 horsepower HTS engines, the Pangeos is expected to have a top speed of just five knots (5.7 miles per hour/9.2 kilometers per hour).

The vessel’s slow and steady speed is unsurprising given its great size. Guests wishing to travel between the Pangeos and other locations will have the option to use either another sea vessel or aircraft. A port will be constructed on board for other boats and an “upper shell area” will grant access to flying vehicles.

Funding and Construction

Unsurprisingly, building a massive floating city is not expected to be cheap. Lazzarini estimates that an investment of eight billion dollars will be necessary for Pangeos to become a reality.

An NFT crowdfunding initiative exists as part of a strategy to acquire funding. Backers can pay with cryptocurrency for virtual space on Pangeos within the metaverse.

Lazzarini says construction would take eight years. Finding a suitable space large enough for such a colossal construction project is a challenge in and of itself. Designers at Lazzarini have postulated that Saudi Arabia might be an appropriate location.

If the Saudi Arabian government agrees, a site at King Abdullah Port has been identified by designers as a feasible location for the mega-project.

Roughly one square kilometer of space in the sea would need to be dredged for construction to begin. A circular dam would be used to control water levels at the construction site.

For now, Pangeos remains very much in the conceptual phase. One day, however, construction of the futuristic floating city might begin in Saudi Arabia.