A New Hotel & Theme Park is Being Built on a Huge Oil Rig in KSA

Moving away from its famously petroleum-based economy, Saudi Arabia is going straight for the symbolism by transforming one of their giant oil rigs into a 800-room hotel and theme park resort. The latest in a series of tourism attractions, Saudi Arabia’s ‘The Rig’ is a sequence of connected platforms, spanning an area of over 150,000 square metres.

The former drilling platform will undergo a complete makeover, featuring a theme park, three hotels, fine-dining restaurants, and an array of activities including extreme sports. Visitors will be able to arrive in style at their helipads, or docking at one of their berths with a 50 yacht capacity.

The project is part of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) to transform the gulf state into a booming tourism spot.  Although the date and location of ‘The Rig’ has not been disclosed yet, it should be noted that many of the country’s oil rigs are clustered off of Saudi Arabia’s east coast near Dammam.