“The extraordinary scale of the metropolis – a 1,001-metre skyscraper, wildlife reserves, and homes for 700,000 people – is matched by a plan to also build an international rail network linking it to Damascus, Baghdad, Iran and China. Inspired by Dubai’s spectacular growth, the Madinat al-Hareer, or Silk City, is intended to create a trading future and a diversified economy in a city which would become a crossroads of the Arab world.”