Crown Prince and Prime Minister (PM) of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) announced the latest ambitious project which this time is enough to make netizens excited. They even call it one of the signs of the apocalypse.
The megaproject is a modern, cube-shaped city called Mukaab. As for what makes some people criticize it is because this building is called resembling the Kaaba.
Quoting Middle East Eye, Wednesday (22/2/2023) the futuristic city center will be in an area of 19 square kilometers. In the section there will be Mukaab which when translated means cube.
Mukaab will include 104,000 residential units, 9,000 hotel rooms, more than 980,000 square meters of retail space and 1.4 square meters of office space. Mukaab will be large enough to accommodate 20 buildings the size of the iconic Empire State in the United States (US).
However, as previously mentioned, Mukaab was widely ridiculed by netizens. There are those who liken it to Star Wars, calling it similar to the Kaaba and trying to imitate and destroy it, to the sign of the apocalypse.
#NewMurabba will add 19 square kilometers to Riyadh's downtown area. Designed around people, it will provide new homes for hundreds of thousands of residents, closer to nature, work and play. https://t.co/5R4DqQdPyS pic.twitter.com/H6IjRQbxVN
— Public Investment Fund (@PIF_en) February 18, 2023
"It seems that (MBS) is building his own Kaaba. Will he make this a new Qibla for his congregation," said the account @asadabukhalil.
"In history, anyone who wants to imitate the Kaaba and draws attention to other buildings that look like the Kaaba or tries to destroy the Kaaba will have a bad fate. They know this but still dare to do it. It is very sad for us Muslims to witness this most sacred is determined in someone's hands," wrote the account @UniverseMuslim.
"The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said one of the signs of the apocalypse is that you will see 'herdsmen' competing in building tall buildings," tweeted Twitter user @2015 Jmr, linking to PIF's post.
The Prophet Muhammed (peace be on him) said that one of the signs of the Hour is that you would see 'the shepherds compete in constructing tall buildings' https://t.co/oovciljt39
— Jibran 🇬🇧 (@2015Jmr) February 19, 2023