There has been a lot of architecture news coming out of Saudi Arabia recently, little of which has been good. Now the jewel in the crown of the desert kingdom's ongoing transformation, the Line, appears to be facing a major rethink.

The original concept for the Line was simply incredible and would have consisted of a supertall skyscraper structure stretching 170 km (105 miles) across some of the world's harshest desert terrain to create a futuristic city. The scale of such a project is unprecedented in the modern era and would be up there with the pyramids of Giza and the Great Wall of China in terms of ambition.

Though work has been swift and has reportedly taken up 20% of the world's available steel, there were already signs of trouble. A report last year stated that Saudi authorities were looking into ways to lower costs, including reducing its 500 m (1,640 ft) height and cutting its initial length to just 2.5 km (1.5 miles). Since then, Mukaab, a massive cuboid building, has been cancelled elsewhere in the kingdom due to cost concerns. Additionally, the chief executive of Neom, which is the wider gigaproject development that The Line anchors, also quit the project