Saudi Arabia

King Salman Park: The Iconic Site that will Transform Riyadh

Published

7 hours ago

10th March 2025

Huda Az

The King Salman Park, a massive project under Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, will become the world's largest urban park upon completion.

Once completed, the enormous project—identical to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 projects—will become the largest urban park in the world, surpassing Hyde Park in London and Central Park in New York. The project’s name is King Salman Park.

Join us as we investigate the traits and specifics of this fictitious park and determine when it will open.

King Salman Park Project

In 2019, when King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, declared that the project would be one of four key initiatives in Riyadh, its features began to take shape. These projects aimed to improve the quality of life in the Kingdom, promote urban sustainability, and enrich culture while ranking Riyadh among the top 100 cities worldwide.

Although King Salman Park will serve as Riyadh’s green lung, it will be more than just a green area because it has an integrated entertainment and service project that aims to improve the capital’s quality of life and standard of living.

Situated on the site of the former King Salman Air Base, now known as Riyadh Airport, the park is easily accessible by public and private transportation. This is thanks to its connections to six major roads, five Green Line stations, one Red Line station, and ten Riyadh Bus Service stations.

The huge park, spanning more than 16.7 square kilometres, has been skilfully divided to optimise the use of each area. Under the direction of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the King Salman Park Foundation is in charge of overseeing the park’s investments’ implementation, upkeep, and administration.

The first public-private collaboration to build multi-use real estate within the park was established in 2023 by the Foundation through the King Salman Park Real Estate Fund. Since this project is fully funded and run by the private sector, the Foundation can better draw in investments and spur economic expansion.

Its Landmarks and Facilities

King Salman Park will develop into a cohesive concept that satisfies guests’ requirements and preferences. Specialised companies that provide a variety of facilities and services established it.

Apart from a sanctuary for birds and butterflies, the park encompasses about 9.3 million square metres of open space, split into several gardens with different designs. There will be more than a million trees planted in the 300,000 square meters designated for water bodies and features.

One of the project’s key components is the circular pedestrian route, which is 7.2 km long and offers a large space for participating in a range of sports. Visitors may enjoy walking, jogging, and cycling in a secure setting while taking in the breathtaking natural surroundings.

In addition, the park has a new sports complex that spans more than 50,000 square metres and offers a range of recreational activities. It also has the Royal Golf Course, which covers an expansive 850 thousand square meters and features dedicated running and cycling tracks.

The Park also has an equestrian centre and a skydiving centre. Moreover, there are celebration squares spanning more than 40,000 square metres, a 100,000-square-metre entertainment games area, a sizeable area for dining establishments like cafés and restaurants, and a commercial area with stores and retail galleries.

A Cultural Icon

The Royal Arts Complex in the park covers more than 400,000 square meters. The Ministry of Culture and the King Salman Park Foundation collaborated on the design of this facility.

It will have a museum of world cultures that will serve as a window into the world’s arts and cultures, transporting visitors back in time. The National Theatre, which has 2,500 seats and the newest audio and video equipment, is also part of it. It will serve as a primary venue for important artistic and cultural events.

Besides, the complex has a movie theatre with three state-of-the-art theatre halls, a collection of indoor theatres, and an outdoor theatre with seating for 8,000 people where people can enjoy live performances outside under the stars.

Regarding residential, service and public amenities, the park seems likely to have a dedicated space for flat buildings, offering roughly 12,000 varied dwelling units that cater to various demographics. Furthermore, 16 hotels with more than 2,500 hotel units will be located within the park.

In addition to libraries and parking spaces of 280 thousand square meters, the public amenities are extensive and advanced, complete with mosques, an emergency centre, health services, modern restrooms, and security measures to guarantee everyone’s safety.

The Park promises to draw approximately 50 million people yearly, supporting 96 thousand inhabitants and 30 thousand employees, and offering 27 thousand housing units.

Project Objectives and Benefits

This project aims to be a green oasis that expands the area of vegetation in Riyadh, which helps lower urban temperatures. In addition, it fulfils the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 to make the park the largest urban park and entertainment complex in the world.

According to the German engineers overseeing the project, they hope to lower temperatures by 12 degrees Celsius. This may seem like a lofty and unrealistic goal. However, studies indicate that innovative cooling techniques like painting white roofs and watering trees constantly can help achieve this.

King Salman Park Opening Date

King Salman Park’s construction is still moving along at a steady pace, and reports suggest that 2025 will see some incredible accomplishments. The Royal Arts Complex has a completion rate of roughly 48%, with the majority of the building work finished, according to Abdullah Al-Lahaidan, Executive Director of Projects and Building Management at the Foundation.

The main infrastructure development projects are still underway, including soil preparation in the art park, tunnel and bridge building, a production nursery, a valley waterfall, and more. This enormous operation has so far involved the excavation of over 13 million cubic meters of earth.

The public will be able to access King Salman Park in stages until the project ends, with an expected opening date of 2027. Alongside the launch, there will be several festivals and activities that embody the park’s goal.

It seems likely that development work will continue until 2040 due to the project’s magnitude and complexity. For such large-scale projects to be completed within the allotted time frames, constant coordination between many stakeholders is necessary. As a result, there is no deadline for finishing the project’s entire development.

At long last, the dream is starting to take shape and materialise. To fulfil Saudi Vision 2030, which calls for Riyadh to become a major hub for sustainable development and tourism worldwide, King Salman Park will become the new landmark. It will revolutionise the city by fusing nature, the arts, and culture in a way that has never been seen before.