When it opened in October 1993, Luxor was heralded as the ultimate in-your-face Las Vegas casino. A stark, forbidding pyramid of black glass, it dominated the southern approach to the Strip, its colossal Sphinx standing guard over not merely this one casino but all the splendors of the city. These days, however, it's surprisingly easy to forget that Luxor is even there, not least because its owners, the Mandalay Resort Group, have comprehensively overshadowed it by building the mighty tower of Mandalay Bay next door. It doesn't help that black glass is one of the least conspicuous construction materials imaginable - especially at night, when the rest of the Strip comes into its own - while the entire exterior of Luxor is so featureless that it's hard to get any sense of the sheer scale of the place. That said, Luxor has been a great success, and ongoing improvements to its originally weak Egyptian theming have made it a better place to visit, or stay, than ever before.
For the record, the pyramid itself is 350 feet high, and it has been flanked since 1997 by two huge yet equally inconspicuous step-pyramids, bringing the total number of hotel rooms to 4427. In theory, it's approached from the sidewalk via a palm-fringed avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, though the only pedestrians around are in fact Luxor guests briefly braving the sun for a photo opportunity. Semi-constant construction work in this area gives Luxor the feel of an archeological site, as though it's being unearthed rather than erected. The transit system that connects Excalibur to the north with Mandalay Bay to the south drops its passengers in front of the main multistory Sphinx, which also doubles as a porte-cochère, its vast belly sheltering the vehicles that drive between its front and rear paws.
The spectacle that greets you inside the portals is every bit as dramatic. To reach the casino proper, you pass through a reconstruction of the temple of Abu Simbel, guarded by two huge seated statues. Luxor employees in gold Egyptian costumes patrol the precincts, posing for souvenir photos. As the pyramid is hollow, you're now in the world's largest atrium, which takes up 29 million cubic feet. Unfortunately, none of the elevators - those that follow the 39° slope of the pyramid are known as inclinators - offers any views to speak of, so unless you're a guest, the only way to see Luxor is by wandering around the lower levels. The gaming area is no more exciting than any other Vegas casino, but around the periphery you'll find some great friezes, statues, hieroglyphic inscriptions and other Pharaonic paraphernalia - look out for the high-camp bare-breasted maidens outside the Ra nightclub.
Escalators climb from the casino floor to the Attractions Level , the one place where Luxor 's theming goes wrong. Supposedly this area represents "the future," but its half-hearted "skyscrapers" are more of a weird hybrid of modern New York and medieval Cairo. Amid the mess are a small food court, a couple of restaurants, and a video game arcade. A meticulous replica of the Tomb of King Tutankhamen ($5) attempts to strike a highbrow note, though most of the visitors who shuffle through it appear bemused by its ersatz treasures. After all, the original - which stands across the river Nile from the city of Luxor, Egypt - remained undiscovered for millennia precisely because it was so small and pokey. Nearby, In Search of the Obelisk ($7) is a two-part simulator ride that punctuates an incoherent saga of Indiana Jones-style derring-do with nauseating mechanical bumps and lurches. Other attractions up here include two IMAX movie theaters (one of them 3-D) that show Egyptian and general-interest films. Exact opening times vary, but broadly speaking they're in operation from 9am until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays, and from 9am until 11pm for the rest of the week. A pricey $24 "Passport to Adventure" covers admission to the lot.
There are in fact no pyramids in Luxor, Egypt.
Above all this, Luxor 's 36 stories taper to a point overhead; all the guestrooms face outward, and with so much free space to play with they're abnormally large by Vegas standards. The most powerful artificial light beam ever created shines up into the sky from the very apex. Though it's said to be visible from planes circling over LA, 250 miles west, it's barely noticeable in the general neon glare of the Strip. Around the back of the pyramid, the large, attractively landscaped swimming pool - open to guests only, and very short on shade - is overlooked by more counterfeit colossi, as well of course as several thousand hotel rooms and a couple of huge parking lots.
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