The world’s longest straight road stretches a staggering 150 miles without a single bend. Saudi Arabia country has become a hub of automotive sporting activity in recent years, hosting the likes of the famous Dakar Rally, a round of the Formula 1 World Championship, and the Extreme E off-road championship. What has played a role in these series coming to region is not just large amounts of money, but also the fact that Saudi Arabia as a lot of desert, a blank page on which to draw and create roads.

However, some of the most famous roads in the region aren’t just for racing cars and racing drivers, but for road cars and people who aren’t racing drivers. And none is more iconic than Highway 10 that connects Haradh to Al Batha.

Originally built for King Fahd in the middle of the Rub Al-Khali desert it holds the Guinness World Record for being the longest stretch of straight road without a corner in the world. Drivers are able to travel around 240km (149miles) without turning their steering wheel.

The previous holder of the record was Australia’s Eyre Highway which was around 146km (91.25 miles) in length without a corner. In their note about the road, the Guinness World Records said that despite the length the road, it doesn’t take that long to cross.

They said: “Built originally as a private road for King Fahd (SAU), the stretch of Highway 10 connecting Highway 75 in the Haradh area to Highway 95 in the west of Saudi Arabia is 240 km (149 mi) long.

“It cuts through the desert with no bends left or right, or any appreciable gradient up or down. The super-straight stretch has an estimated driving time of around 2 hr.”

Authorities have cautioned against speeding or reckless driving not he road, as the featureless terrain and lack of steering can lull motorists into a false sense of security.

It’s not the only example of Saudi Arabia’s obsession with linear architecture. The country has started work on a £1trillion “smart city” to be built in the country’s Tabuk Province.

Neom’s 110-mile-long city – known as The Line – is formed of two immensely-long continuous blocks.

It is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who hopes to free the Middle-Eastern country from its dependence on fossil fuels and create a new economy based on science and leisure.

But some who have worked on the project have privately described the plans as “untethered from reality”.

The city has also been described as potentially deadly. The mirrored-glass structure is essentially a “giant greenhouse,” says leading design scientist Melissa Sterry. With temperatures on the rise worldwide June 2024’s 40C heatwave in Saudi Arabia killed over 1,000 people making the traditional Haj pilgrimage to Mecca.