Saudi Arabia building $5 billion turtle-shaped gigayacht

Monitoring Desk

RIYADH: An Italian design studio is planning to build a yacht like the world has never seen before in Saudi Arabia, called Pangeos and shaped like a giant turtle. It’s going to have its own villas, beach clubs, a mall, and can fit an astounding 60,000 people.

You’ve heard of the underwater realm of Atlantis, now imagine a city that floats instead. Lazzarini, an Italian design studio, are the mad designers behind this outlandish (pun kind of intended) concept.

The Pangeos dwarfs the yachts of yore and breaks boundaries, equipped with a rooftop garden, mall, beach club, and enough housing units to be inhabited by 60,000 people.

The floating city is an unprecedented feat of engineering, of course assuming the concept ever comes into fruition. If it does, the vessel would make use of a 4,198,000 square foot shipyard located in Saudi Arabia. Pangeos would remain globetrotting the oceans with no set destination.

The concept would stretch 1,800 feet long and even has an opening allowing smaller vessels to enter Pangeos. The construction of the lavish project is estimated to cost approximately $5 billion, if the Pangeos ever comes into material existence, there will surely be some exuberant yachters and terrified fishermen greeting it on the water.

The yacht will stretch 1,800 feet in length and has a beam of 2,000 feet, which will allow the ceilings in the rooms to be much higher than standard.

Terayacht Pangeos is powered by nine HTS fully electric engines that keep the vessel at a constant speed of 5 knots. This innovation will also generate renewable energy from the breaking of the waves on the ship’s wings, and it has a rooftop is lined with solar panels to help power it.

In the lower part of the vessel, the design team also included 30,000 cells, or cluster compartments, and provided an unsinkable floating solution for the basement. The Saudi yacht also comes with a portico located on the stern of the ship, which will allow vessels to enter the city.