Related coverage on Red Sea

The Hydrophilis rebreather is a new scuba system that could make diving safer and more fun.

A new breed of luxury has landed on the Red Sea, mirrored pods floating above coral reefs, reflecting sky and sea like something not entirely of this Earth. Energy powered by solar powers, drinking water pulled from the sea using desalination. 

Hydrophilis, Oliver Isler’s experimental rebreather suit, reimagines diving by reducing drag, eliminating bubbles, and bringing humans closer to the natural movement of marine life.

In 2025, the Jordanian government signed agreements with a consortium led by Meridiam and SUEZ, alongside VINCI Construction and Orascom Construction. Under a 30-year concession agreement, the consortium will design, build, finance, operate, and maintain the system before transferring it back to the Jordanian government. The total investment is estimated at approximately $6 billion USD.

For millennia, the Middle East's water crisis seemed an immutable fact of geography — a region defined as much by what it lacked as by what lay beneath its sands. Today, a convergence of plummeting solar costs, advancing membrane technology, and hard-won engineering expertise is rewriting that story.

Somaliland, for its part, has operated as a de facto independent state since 1991. It has its own government, elections, currency, and security forces. It’s often described as one of the more stable and democratic political systems in the region, despite never being formally recognized internationally. 

The proposed medical centre, described by Emek HaMaayanot Regional Council head Itamar Matiash as “a centre for cancer treatment, so that people from Jordan or further away could come and receive treatment,” would become the flagship of a wider cluster of medical, academic and innovation-based services planned for the Israeli half of the zone.

Benban isn’t a single solar plant at all, but a collection of 41 facilities, each developed by different companies but connected through shared infrastructure. This structure is what makes Benban unique: dozens of developers working like nodes in a vast energy network, each feeding electricity into shared substations and Egypt’s national grid.

For now, Musk’s partnership signals a deepening alignment between Silicon Valley and Riyadh — and a new chapter in the Middle East’s data-powered future. The satellites and robots may come later. The energy footprint, however, is already here.

Saudi Arabia, a nation better known for its oil wealth, is rapidly reinventing itself as a marine sustainability player....

German magazine stern and broadcaster RTL have confirmed what Green Prophet has reported for months — the sinking of Egypt’s Sea Story dive yacht in November 2024, which killed 11 people, was no freak accident. Their undercover investigation reveals the captain had no licence, the operator lacked legal authorisation, and the vessel had serious stability flaws. A wider probe of 17 Red Sea liveaboard boats found every one had dangerous safety deficiencies, echoing Green Prophet’s earlier coverage of Egypt’s dive tourism safety crisis.

Saudi Arabia is deploying capital at unmatched scale to catalyze tourism and advanced industry while rewiring its power-and-water backbone. The investable frontier is widening—especially in renewables, grid storage, water efficiency/desal retrofits, and hospitality operating platforms. Prudent investors will insist on phased delivery, enforceable KPIs (energy, water, biodiversity), and RHQ/zone compliance—while pricing political-economy and reputational risks alongside growth upside.