One of the world's most ambitious construction projects is being built right here in the middle of a desert.
Six of the Middle East's wealthiest countries have come together to construct a railway that will stretch for more than 2,000 kilometres and better connect the region.
But with desert sands to cross and mountains to tunnel through, the project's challenges are immense and matched only by the price tag that comes with tackling them.
If it works, the new line could unite the Gulf, reshape its transportation sector, reduce its carbon footprint and kickstart a whole new era of economic development.
Welcome to the $100BN railway in the desert.
Before we get into how the railway is built, it's important to understand why it's being built in the first place.
Let's start here, February 1981 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Leaders from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman met to form a political and economic alliance called the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC.
As a group, they've made a lot of money off oil and gas, and that means their economies are largely tied to the oil market.
Now, around 2008-2009 oil prices plummeted amid the Great Recession and the GCC economies took a hit.
