Six Flags Qiddiya Unveils Park Design

Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC) unveiled on Monday the design for Six Flags Qiddiya, one of the key entertainment facilities in a new city that is being built just outside Riyadh, and is destined to become the Kingdom’s capital of entertainment, sports and the arts.

“Our vision is to make Six Flags Qiddiya a theme park that delivers all the thrills and excitement that audiences from all over the world have come to expect from the Six Flags brand, and to elevate those experiences with authentic themes connected to the location. As a place that will create indelible memories and moments of delight, telling stories that resonate with our guests is a central notion that will be evident throughout Qiddiya,” said Michael Reininger, Chief Executive Officer of QIC.

Six Flags Qiddiya will be one of the key entertainment features in Qiddiya’s first phase when it opens in 2023. The rides and attractions found in each land have been designed exclusively for Qiddiya and include many that will set world records.

“The Six Flags brand began in 1961 when we opened as our first park, Six Flags Over Texas, which was themed according to the six flags that once flew over Texas. At Six Flags Qiddiya, we return to that heritage by creating six immersive lands designed for Saudis of all ages who seek family entertainment experiences steeped in their rich culture and history. We are thrilled to be part of a project of such scale and scope and are proud to celebrate this milestone with Qiddiya,” said David McKillips, President of Six Flags International Development Company.

Six Flags Qiddiya will cover 32 hectares (79 acres) and feature 28 rides and attractions across the six lands: The City of Thrills, Discovery Springs, Steam Town, Twilight Gardens, Valley of Fortune and Grand Exposition.

The Citadel is the central hub of the park. It is covered by a billowing canopy form inspired by traditional Bedouin tents. It holds a variety of shops and cafes and transforms into an interactive show space throughout the day. From here guests can pass through gateways to enter each of the themed lands.

The City of Thrills is the embodiment of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030: a forward-looking, boundary-pushing, future city anchored in Arabic design motifs. Here visitors will find Six Flags Qiddiya’s most recognizable and anticipated thrill rides. The Falcon’s Flight, inspired by the Kingdom’s iconic raptor, will be the longest, tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world, while the Sirocco Tower will break more records with the world’s tallest drop-tower ride.

Discovery Springs reflects Qiddiya’s unique and timeless relationship between the desert and the sea as its collection of rides and experiences play with elements of earth and water. It is an aquatic wonderland of waterfalls, aqueducts and geysers, as well as exotic plants and trees. This oasis offers visitors relief from the summer heat by creating the feel of a dense rainforest in the middle of the desert. Visitors to Discovery Springs will discover a first-of-its-kind interactive ride called the Sea Stallion, where riders are propelled over rivers, behind waterfalls and through trees along a custom-designed course, as they control the speed and acceleration of their horse.

Steam Town is where the past and future collide in a rugged frontier town that is powered by steam and echoes with screams. Themed around mechanical marvels and a collection of dynamic contraptions, the land’s signature ride is the Iron Rattler Mine Train. On this ride the best elements of a roller coaster are linked with a dark ride to create a hydraulic lift which releases passengers into a freefall plunge through a narrow, steam-filled mineshaft. Other key features of Steam Town include the Sawmill Falls Water Coaster which combines a roller coaster track with a splashing boat ride, a spinning mechanical ride called the Bull Rider and a custom-themed climbing structure called the Treehouse Trek.

Twilight Gardens is an oversized landscape of the imagination filled with colorful flowers and friendly creatures, all specially designed for younger visitors and their families. This enchanted land’s key features include the Twilight Express Coaster, which takes passengers through a majestic garden, the Critter Chase, an interactive dark ride set in a 3D environment, and the Kaleidoscope hot air balloon ride.

Valley of Fortune is an exciting land of adventure that takes place amidst time-worn architectural ruins of old Arabian masonry, enlivened by the activity and trade of fortune seekers from around the world. This land’s signature attraction is Spitfire, a triple-launch coaster, which will take guests into a sky roll before an acrobatic stall and a breathtaking dive back to the valley floor. Other features of Valley of Fortune include Skywatch, a hydraulic boom ride where riders are lifted into the sky, the auto-themed Treasure Trail and the Aeromax, a family plane ride that swings and rotates freely over the park.

Grand Exposition is a celebration of innovation combining the nostalgia of traditional carnival midways with the greatest feats of science and technology such as the Gyrospin Pendulum, which swings riders to record heights. It is also home to Six Flags’ classic and most loved coaster Colossus, a gravity-driven wood-steel hybrid roller coaster that stretches over an 800-meter track. The land also features the Arabian Carousel, where Arabian horses march in a circular parade, the Expo Flyer swinging ride and Automania, with bumper car attractions themed as London cabs.

Two months away from what she says is her 120th birthday, Deolira Gliceria Pedro da Silva, a great-grandmother from the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is rushing to be recognized as the world’s oldest living person by the Guinness World Records.

The institution currently features another Brazilian, Inah Canabarro Lucas, a nun from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul as the oldest living person at 116 years, but Deolira’s family and doctors are confident that she will soon take the religious woman’s title.

“She is still not in the book, but she is the oldest in the world according to the documents we have on her, as I recently discovered,” said Deolira’s granddaughter Doroteia Ferreira da Silva, who is half her age, Reuters reported.

The documents show that Pedro da Silva was born on March 10th 1905 in the rural area of Porciuncula, a small town in the state of Rio. She now lives in a colorfully painted house in Itaperuna, where her two granddaughters Doroteia, 60, and Leida Ferreira da Silva, 64, take care of her.

The grandmother is also supervised by doctors and researchers who are interested in how she outlived the average life expectancy in Brazil, which currently sits at 76.4 years, by more than four decades.

“Mrs. Deolira, in 2025, will be 120 years old. She is in a good general state of health for her condition, she is not taking any medication,” said geriatric doctor Juair de Abreu Pereira, who checks up on Pedro da Silva frequently and is assisting her family in the process with Guinness World Records.

In a statement, Guinness said it couldn't confirm receiving Pedro da Silva's application, because it receives many from people around the world who claim to be the oldest living person.

Major floods in the region almost twenty years ago destroyed most of Deolira’s original documents, her doctor said. That may pose a challenge for the official recognition of her age.

Even if her age is not precise, Pedro da Silva is certainly older than 100 years, according to Mateus Vidigal, a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo who has studied her case as part of a project to understand the super elderly population of Brazil.

“Mrs. Deolira has not been excluded from the study, but there is this fragility which is the lack of documentation that is approved by those organizations,” Vidigal said, referring to vetting institutions such as the Guinness World Records.

Pedro Silva’s healthy diet and sleeping habits are key to her longevity, according to Dr. Pereira. To this day, she has a good interaction with her family and likes eating bananas.

“I wish I could get to her age and be like that,” Ferreira da Silva, her granddaughter, said. “While we have high blood pressure and diabetes, she does not have any of that.”

Six Flags Qiddiya Unveils Park Design