Incredible continent-spanning ‘Moses bridge' linking Africa and Asia across Red Sea is ‘ready to be built'
A MINDBLOWING multibillion-dollar bridge connecting two continents across the Red Sea dubbed the "Moses bridge" is set to be built.
The extraordinary bridge will link Saudi Arabia and Egypt across the sea that Moses is said to have parted over 3,200 years ago.
4
4
4
Ambitious plans for the incredible bridge were announced nearly a decade ago in 2016 by Saudi Arabia's King Salman.
The mind-boggling megaproject is expected to cost an eye-watering $4billion - financed by the Arab Kingdom.
Egyptian transport minister Kamel al-Wazir has now confirmed that the planning stage has now been completed.
He said: "We have now completed the planning for the bridge between Egypt and Saudi Arabia and are ready to implement it at any time, whether a bridge or a tunnel."
The minister added that the current solution for connecting the two countries was the Arab Bridge Maritime Co., which currently holds 13 vessels and transports cargo between the nations.
The new build will make trading cargo much more efficient - and will compliment Saudi Arabia's megalomaniac NEOM project.
The jaw-dropping bridge will connect Egypt's Sinai Peninsula with the Arab Kingdom, crossing the Straits of Tiran.
Ras Hamid in Saudi Arabia will be linked to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik in Egypt.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi previously suggested naming the structure "King Salman bin Abdulaziz Bridge" in 2016.
But it has been dubbed the "Moses Bridge" for its iconic location.
It is hoped that the project will create thousands of jobs on each side of the sea.
The bridge will also provide an alternative pilgrimage route, and is expected to hold over a million travellers per year.
The idea for a Red Sea bridge linking the two countries has been proposed several times before but has always failed to become a reality.
Floated ideas for the revolutionary structure date back to 1988.
A slew of delays for the Saudi-Egypt bridge has also plagued its long-running history.
The completed plans come as a separate bridge is also being planned over the Red Sea, spanning 20 miles and being headed by Osama Bin Laden's brother.
The structure, dubbed the 'Bridge of the Horns', is expected to be a combination of causeway and suspension bridge with four piers.
It also comes as Saudi Arabia continues to struggle with its groundbreaking $500billoin megacity project.
The Middle Eastern nation's NEOM project - which would see a high-tech utopia built from scratch near the country's border with Jordan - has long been cursed.
One former employee shared their story of working at the gigaproject with The Sun, shedding light on the atrocities taking place behind NEOM's doors.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Lawsuit seeks release of Colorado attack suspect's family, NYT reports
June 4 (Reuters) - Lawyers representing the wife and children of the Egyptian national charged with tossing gasoline bombs at a pro-Israeli rally in Colorado sued the U.S. government on Wednesday, seeking to release the family from custody and block their deportation, the New York Times reported, citing a court filing.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
'The best feeling' - will Toney build on Saudi success with England?
Out of sight, out of is what many thought about Ivan Toney and his chances of being called up to the England squad after he made the move to Saudi Arabia last Three Lions boss Thomas Tuchel sprang a surprise by naming the Al-Ahli striker in his squad for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Andorra and Tuesday's friendly against justified his decision by citing Toney's impressive scoring record in Saudi Arabia - he has scored 30 in 44 games in all competitions. "He deserves to be with us and I am convinced because he scored over 20 goals for his team this season," the German coach said. "He won a major title with the Asian Champions League, he had a big contribution with goals and assists."Talking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Toney insisted he never thought his England career was over."No, I never think negative, I always think positive, no matter the situation on and off the pitch."I mean if you are scoring and playing well, obviously you are still going to be in the manager's mind."The manager recognised that and hence why I got the recall, which is obviously the best feeling." A player in form, but from a poor league? There have, of course, been many high-profile footballers who have made the move to Saudi Arabia in recent Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo is perhaps the most famous of them, but there's also been Neymar, N'Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez, who continued to be selected by their respective national teams after making the Toney could come up against his Al-Ahli team-mate Edouard Mendy when England play Senegal next through the list of squads there are plenty of recognisable names playing in the Saudi Pro League but, despite that, the overall standard of the league is perceived as quite Opta's most recent Power Rankings the Saudi Pro League was ranked as just the 29th-strongest in the world, just behind the Ecuador Liga Pro."Toney has referenced it himself publicly that he has been very surprised by the standard for football in Saudi Arabia," Gulf-based sports journalist John McAuley, who covers the Saudi Pro League, told BBC Sport."It is a lot higher than he expected and obviously that is because of the influx of proper international players coming into the league now."Saudi always had a very high standing in Asian football - Al-Hilal are the record four-time winners of the Asian Champions League. "The level of local players is still very good but when you think of the defenders Toney is up against, he is still playing against Aymeric Laporte at Al-Nassr, Kalidou Koulibaly at Al-Hilal, Danilo Pereira, who came from PSG to Al-Ittihad - so he is still playing against European standard players."Regardless of the perception of the league he is playing in, there's no doubt Toney arrived at this England camp as a player in form, having enjoyed a brilliant scoring run in the second half of the season to help Al-Ahli become champions of Asia."He ended up with a run of something like 19 goals in his last 19 league games, finishing two goals behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the Golden Boot," McAuley added."The huge thing, and something that really integrated him with the fans, is he played a key role in Al-Ahli winning the Asian Champions League Elite for the first time.""Making the transition, the first moving to Saudi, it was a big one," Toney told 5 live."Obviously, people are going to think 'how is he going to cope and how is he going to be?'. As you can see from the stats, they speak for themselves."It's been a good season with winning a trophy also. It was a big thing for me, I haven't won many trophies, but being part of that one was a big moment." A career of ups and downs Toney is 29 and has certainly had an interesting and varied career to this at Northampton, he rose through the leagues - scoring in all four of the top divisions in English football before settling at was at the Bees where he peaked, with 20 league goals in the 2022-23 season, to become one of the hottest properties in the Premier has, however, been a bit of a late bloomer. He only established himself in the Premier League four years ago, and was 27 years old when he won his first England cap. In comparison, Harry Kane had 46 caps by that stage - while Wayne Rooney had career has also been marked with controversy - in May 2023 he was banned from playing for eight months for 232 breaches of the Football Association's betting summer he was included in the England squad for Euro 2024 and played in the final against Spain, before opting to join Al-Ahli in August for £ wages offered will no doubt have played a big role in Toney's decision, with it reported, external that the four-year-deal with the Saudi side would earn him £400,000 per week after tax. A huge rise on the £50,000-a-week he was on at Toney was in his late twenties when he reached the top of the game, a desire to significantly safeguard his financial future seems the striker has been insistent that a desire for new experiences also motivated him."I wanted something a bit different," he told FourFourTwo in December."It's a different culture, but I can blend in anywhere. I've been at Peterborough, Brentford, now out of the UK. "I'm excited to be on this journey. I believe it's the right move at this stage of my career." The 'natural fit' who might offer an edge for 2026 World Cup Tuchel was keen to stress that Toney's England call-up was as much about him getting a close-up look at the player, having not had the opportunity to go see him play in Saudi former Chelsea boss has underlined the importance of a player's personality and how they are in a training camp, as well as having players in the group who have won things - having talked up Toney's Asian Champions League aside from that he does offer Tuchel a good option in attack."Of course, yes I have been in the plans before and I just have to keep amongst it, keep scoring goals and keep playing well," said Toney."There are a lot of great players and great strikers that are in and around the mix, but I have to focus on myself and hopefully I can stay amongst it now and get myself to the World Cup.""Toney is the most natural fit if Kane is injured. He is the most similar in terms of profile," says BBC Sport's senior football reporter Alex Howell."When you see Ollie Watkins play it does really change the way England play - wingers are looking for him, the number 10s want to connect with the striker, but Watkins is always looking the other way - Toney wants to be that focal point."Another consideration Tuchel may have made is that by the time the 2026 World Cup comes round, playing in the heat and humidity of Saudi Arabia will ensure Toney is accustomed to the conditions anticipated in North America."The start and end of the season it is boiling in Jeddah, and it has the humidity as well, and that will certainly stand him in good stead for next year," added eyes will now be on these next two games for England and how big a role Toney plays in them under Tuchel.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Unions from 36 countries protest over treatment of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia
Trade unions from 36 countries have filed a complaint with the International Labour Organisation over the treatment of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. The complaint calls for a 'commission of inquiry' into labour rights in the country, one of the most powerful tools available to the ILO, a United Nations agency. The demand comes amid growing concern that not enough is being done to improve the conditions of workers as development begins to scale up before the Fifa World Cup, due to take place in the Gulf state in 2034. Luc Triangle, the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said the 'scale and severity' of the issues in Saudi Arabia demanded the strongest response. 'This is a call for immediate action towards genuine, inclusive and collaborative reform,' he said. 'We cannot tolerate another death of a migrant worker in Saudi Arabia. We cannot remain silent while migrant workers, especially construction and domestic workers continue to face fundamental rights violations. This has to stop now.' The news comes on the day the ILO announced a new cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, signed on the sidelines of its key annual gathering, the International Labour Conference, held in Geneva this week. Under the initial two-year agreement Saudi Arabia is expected to begin to align its laws with international labour standards. Human rights groups and trade unions have repeatedly warned that the World Cup, and other major projects, could be tarnished by abusive conditions endured by migrant workers in constructing the necessary infrastructure. These concerns include extortionate recruitment fees, non-payment of wages, false contracts, passport confiscation and exposure to extreme heat. Thousands of workers could be likely to die as construction ramps up, the rights group FairSquare claimed last month. The number of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia has surged in recent years to more than 13 million, driven in part by a massive construction boom linked to the World Cup and so-called giga-projects. The Guardian understands that Saudi Arabia's agreement with the ILO includes proposals for new measures to support fair recruitment and make it easier for workers to change jobs, the introduction of a minimum wage and the inclusion of migrant workers on workers' representative committees. Trade unions remain prohibited in the country. The agreement also sets out commitments to improve the compensation system for workers who are injured or killed. In the longer term, it promises to strengthen protections for domestic workers, who have been excluded from key provisions of the labour law. The planned reforms have failed to satisfy trade union delegates. Trade unions from the UK, Japan, Canada, Australia and 13 African countries including Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal pushed through the complaint, despite fierce opposition from the Saudis. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion The complaint, which the Guardian has seen, lists dozens of cases of alleged human trafficking, forced labour, wage theft and physical and sexual abuse of migrant workers. 'Africans go to Saudi Arabia looking for life but come back in coffins,' said Omar Osman, the general secretary of the federation of Somali trade unions and one of the signatories. The complaint follows submissions made this year by the Building and Woodworkers International to the ILO over migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, and African trade unions raised with Fifa concerns over the treatment of workers. Fifa says the human rights policy submitted as part of Saudi Arabia's bid for the World Cup commits the country to embedding ILO standards as part of the 2034 process. In a letter to Human Rights Watch in April, the secretary general of Fifa, Mattias Grafström, wrote that 'the work to implement the measures outlined in the bid strategy has started and is a priority for Fifa'. The trade union complaint is understood to acknowledge that this dialogue has begun. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development in Saudi Arabia was approached for comment.
