Luxor Las Vegas

Luxor Las Vegas is a 30-story hotel and casino situated on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The hotel is owned and operated by MGM Resorts International and has a 120,000-square-foot (11,000 m2) casino with over 2,000 slot machines and 87 table games.

The casino opened in 1993 and was renovated and expanded several times. Later renovation work modernized the design of the property and raised the hotel's capacity to 4,407 rooms, including 442 suites. The hotel's rooms line the interior walls of the main tower, which has a pyramid shape, and the 22-story twin ziggurat towers.

The hotel is named for the city of Luxor (ancient Thebes) in Egypt.

## History

### Construction and opening

The resort was announced by Circus Circus Enterprises on November 14, 1991. Known temporarily as "Project X", the pyramid-shaped resort would cost $290 million, and would be built on the Las Vegas Strip, on land located south of the company's Excalibur Hotel and Casino.Groundbreaking took place on April 21, 1992, with the project by then known as "Luxor", after the Egyptian city of the same name. Veldon Simpson was the architect, and Perini Building Company was the general contractor. Waltek, a Cincinnati-based company, provided the metal-and-glass exterior for the pyramid. Standing 30 stories high, the pyramid was one of the largest metal-and-glass projects ever. The pyramid was topped off on July 9, 1993. The Luxor would compete against two other upcoming resorts, MGM Grand and Treasure Island. All three resorts had a family oriented focus.

The resort officially opened at 4 a.m. 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. When the hotel opened, it was the tallest structure on the Strip, surpassed after only 11 days by Treasure Island, and featured the world's largest atrium, which has since been surpassed.

### Renovations

A $240 million expansion occurred in 1996, and included an IMAX theater. A theater and two additional towers totaling 2,000 rooms were added in 1998 for $675 million.

In July 2007, owner MGM Resorts International announced plans to thoroughly renovate the Luxor, spending $300 million to remodel 80% 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.

### Incidents

On May 7, 2007, a vehicle exploded in a Luxor Hotel parking garage due to a homemade pipe bomb which left one man 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. Two men were found guilty of the bombing, and in 2010 were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

## Facilities

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. As of 2010, the Luxor was designated as a 4 Key rating from the Green Key Eco-Rating Program, which evaluates what is known as "sustainable hotel operations." The hotel features inclined elevators which travel up the side of the building on a 39-degree incline.

### The Atrium

Luxor Las Vegas has the largest atrium in the world (by volume) at 29 million cu yd (22 million m3).

## Attractions

The Luxor is home to three shows which consist of "Fantasy" (a topless revue), comedian Carrot Top, and the Blue Man Group.

Since 2009, the resort has hosted Bodies: The Exhibition, an educational display on the human body, and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition; the exhibits replaced the hotel's three-story arcade.

### Former attractions

At its opening, the resort 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 river tour was removed three years after the hotel's opening.

The hotel also featured King Tut's Tomb and Museum, a replica of King Tutankhamen's tomb as found in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.The replica tomb was closed in June 2008 and its recreated artifacts were donated to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. The Natural History Museum displays the artifacts in its "Treasures of Egypt" exhibit, which opened January 30, 2010.

Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid was a collection of three attractions which also debuted at the hotel's opening. The attractions included:

* In Search of the Obelisk
* Luxor Live
* Theater of Time

Theater of Time was replaced with IMAX-Cinema, which operated from 1996 to 2008. At time of the opening it was one out of 20 IMAX screens.

From 2000 to 2005, the Luxor Theatre was the home of the performance-art show Blue Man Group, which then moved to the Venetian Las Vegas. Blue Man Group returned to the Luxor Theatre starting November 18, 2015.

### Clubs

On August 31, 2007, LAX Nightclub officially opened at a party hosted by Britney Spears. A number of other celebrities, including Christina Aguilera, also hosted events at the club. The two-level, 26,000 sq ft (2,400 m2) venue contained 78 VIP tables and Noir Bar, which according to the Las Vegas Review Journal was an "ultra-elite bar" with a reservations-only policy. LAX Nightclub was closed on April 1, 2017 and was transformed into an esports venue, Esports Arena Las Vegas. Work on the Esports Arena began in July 2017 and completed in March 2018.

Additional nightlife destinations within Luxor include CatHouse, Aurora, Liquidity, and Flight.

## Luxor Sky Beam

At 42.3 billion candela, the Luxor Sky Beam is the strongest beam of light in the world, using curved mirrors to collect the light from 39 xenon lamps and focus them into one intense, narrow beam. On a clear night, the Sky Beam is visible up to 275 miles (443 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.

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 (150 °C) while the lights are operating. Since 2008, only half the lamps are lit as a cost- and energy-saving measure.

## 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 the Mandalay Bay Tram, as well as by walkways, with The Shoppes of Mandalay Bay, a boutique shopping centre built on a bridge over Mandalay Bay Road, directly connecting the Luxor with the Mandalay Bay resort to the south. All three properties were built by Circus Circus Enterprises, which in 1999 became Mandalay Resort Group, which was then succeeded by MGM Miragein April 2005 (now named MGM Resorts International).