Luxor Las Vegas is a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The 30-story hotel, owned and operated by MGM Resorts International, has a 120,000-square-foot (11,000Â m2) casino with over 2,000 slot machines and 87 table games.
Due to the 2008 to 2009 renovation, it has a new, highly modernized design and contains a total of 4,407 rooms, including 442 suites, lining the interior walls of a pyramid-shaped tower and within more recent twin 22-story ziggurat towers.
The hotel is named after the city of Luxor (ancient Thebes) in Egypt. Luxor is the fourth-largest hotel in Las Vegas and the seventh largest in the world. As of 2010, the Luxor has a 4 Key rating from the Green Key Eco-Rating Program, which evaluates "sustainable" hotel operations.
History
Ground was broken for the Luxor in April 1991 and the resort officially opened eighteen months later at 4 AM on October 15, 1993, to a crowd of 10,000 people. When it opened, the pyramid, which cost $375 million to build, was the tallest building on the strip and contained 2,526 rooms and a 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) casino. The resort was financed by “petty cash†earned from other Circus Circus Enterprises properties and did not include any outside financial investors. The hotel's pyramid is similar in size to the Red Pyramid and Bent Pyramid of Egypt.
A theater and two additional towers totaling 2,000 rooms were added in 1998 for $675 million. When the resort opened, it featured the Nile River Tour which was a river ride that carried guests to different parts of the pyramid and passed by pieces of ancient artwork on a river that encircled the casino. The casino also featured King Tut’s Tomb and Museum, a duplicate of King Tutankhamen’s tomb as found in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt. In July 2007, owner MGM Resorts International announced plans to thoroughly renovate the Luxor, spending $300 million to remodel 80 percent of Luxor's public areas, removing much of the ancient Egyptian theme and replacing it with more adult-oriented and modern lounges, restaurants and clubs.
On May 7, 2007, a vehicle exploded in a Luxor Hotel parking garage due to a home-made bomb which left one dead. Local authorities believe the victim, a 24-year-old employee at Nathan’s Famous hot dog restaurant in the Luxor food court, was the intended target. The hotel was not evacuated, operations continued uninterrupted, and the parking structure as well as the casino were undamaged.
Luxor Las Vegas includes 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m2) of convention space, four swimming pools and whirlpools, a wedding chapel, Nurture Spa and Salon and 29 retail stores. Luxor is also connected to the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino through The Shoppes at Mandalay Place, a 310-foot (94 m)- long retail sky bridge with retailers such as Urban Outfitters, minus5° Ice Lounge & Lodge, a Guinness Store and a Nike Golf store.
The Luxor is home to five shows which consist of "Criss Angel - Believe", "PRiSM" starring the Jabbawockeez, "Fantasy" (a topless revue), comedian Carrot Top, and "Menopause the Musical". Luxor's most recent live show, PRiSM, debuted in May 2013 and stars popular dance crew Jabbawockeez. The show features dance and mime comedy to tell a story themed around black, white and the 7 colors of the spectrum. PRiSM is housed in a new 850-seat theater and a mural of the crew is painted in the lobby by performance artist David Garibaldi.
Luxor's other star show is "Criss Angel - Believe", a collaboration between illusionist Criss Angel and Cirque du Soleil that began in Halloween of 2008. The hotel also hosts “Bodies...The Exhibition,†an educational display on the human body, and “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibitionâ€. From 2000 to 2005, the Luxor Theatre was the home of the performance-art show Blue Man Group, which has since moved to the Monte Carlo.
On August 31, 2007, LAX Nightclub officially opened at a party hosted by Britney Spears. A number of other celebrities, including Christina Aguilera, have also hosted events at the club. The two-level, 26,000 sq ft (2,400 m2) venue contains 78 VIP tables and Noir Bar, which according to the Las Vegas Review Journal is an “ultra-elite bar†that is a reservations-only establishment. Additional nightlife destinations within Luxor include CatHouse, Aurora, Liquidity, and Flight.
The McDonald's inside of the Luxor food court became the first out of two McDonalds in the entire world to vend Pepsi products instead of Coke products. The second opened up 3 years later in Excalibur.
Luxor Sky Beam
At 42.3 billion candela, the Luxor Sky Beam is the strongest beam of light in the world. Using computer designed, curved mirrors to collect the light from 39 xenon lamps and focus them into one intense, narrow beam, engineers claimed that newspaper can be read from a distance as far as 10 miles. This however, was later revealed to be a false claim. The light beam, however, was still unarguably bright. On a clear night, the Sky Beam is visible up to 275 miles (443Â km) away by aircraft at cruising altitude, such as over Los Angeles.
Each of the 39 lamps is a 7,000 watt Xenotech fixture costing about $1,200. When at full power, the system costs $51 an hour to operate, with $20 per hour of that just for its 315,000 watts of electricity. The beam has operated reliably since first enabled on October 15, 1993, and is an FAA designated navigational landmark for aviators.
The lamp room is about 50 feet (15 m) below the top of the building and serviced by a staff of two workers during the day. The room's temperature is about 300 °F (149 °C) while the lights are operating. Since 2008, only half the lamps are lit as a cost and energy saving measure. The light might be the world's best bug attractor, establishing a new ecosystem of moths, bats, and owls.
Location
Luxor is located on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip. The resort is flanked by the Mandalay Bay to the south and by the Excalibur to the north; all three are connected by free express and local trams. All three properties were built by Circus Circus Enterprises, which in 1999 became Mandalay Resort Group.
Usage in popular culture
This destination hotel is often viewed as a prime example of 1990s Postmodern architecture, and appeared on the cover of architecture scholar James Steele's book Architecture Today. Since opening in 1993, the hotel has appeared in numerous films including the 1996 film Mars Attacks! and can be seen in the destroyed Vegas in 2012.
In Up in the Air, George Clooney's character, Ryan Bingham, is asked to take a picture in front of the Luxor hotel. The Hotel was also seen in the movie The Hangover. The hotel has also been featured in the television shows Fear Factor, Criss Angel Mindfreak, Great Hotels, and CSI. A replica of the Luxor, named "The Camel's Toe", appeared in the Las Venturas area of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The Luxor Las Vegas also appears in Futurama episode, "Viva Mars Vegas".
Gallery
See also
- Cathedral of light
- spectra (installation)
- A Symphony of Lights,
- Tribute in Light
References
External links
- Luxor Hotel website
- Aerial image
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