Luxury casinos. Wild parties. Spectacular stage shows. Big celebrity concerts. Bright neon marquees. Loud music. Flamboyant outfits. Endless buffets. Bottomless cocktails.
These are the things that come to mind when you think of Las Vegas. Or think Ocean’s 12 or Hangover.
As an introvert, these are the things that I usually avoid. You could, therefore, say that going to Las Vegas is not exactly in my bucket list. It’s funny, because a lot of people I know here in North America make it a point to go there at least once. It’s a quintessential American experience and one can always get amazing deals for all-inclusive package tours there. But somehow, it just never appealed to me, nor to my husband.
We did go there anyway, not intentionally, but because it was there, so why not?
When my husband and I visited my brother and his family in California, we went on a road trip to Arizona and Nevada. Of course, Las Vegas was part of that itinerary. How could one skip that? In fact, my brother’s family often goes there to watch shows or to take visiting family out, since it is not too far away from where they live and they enjoy the long drive.
My brother got us booked at the Luxor Hotel, just because we were Las Vegas newbies and he wanted us to have the full “Strip experience.” He also thought that ancient history buffs like us would fancy staying in an Egyptian pyramid, even though it’s a fake one (but can technically still be dubbed as USA's pyramid, and in fact, one of the tallest ones in the world at that).
Normally, they’d stay off the The Strip in one of those normal hotels that are part of their hotel chain membership. They don’t really care for the casinos, the crowd, and the noise, so it doesn’t make sense to waste money at a fancy hotel whose amenities you don’t need anyway. For this trip, however, they made an exception for us.
Located at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip, the hotel's architecture stands out because of its pyramid shape, the imposing Great Sphinx in front of it (a replica even larger than the original in Egypt), and the tall obelisk beside it that bears the hotel's name. At night, it can be easily spotted because of the light beam that emanates from the pyramid's apex. It is said to be the strongest beam of light in the world and on a clear night, can be visible up to 275 miles away.
Inside, it boasts of a spacious Atrium, the largest in the world, actually, and it houses the hotel's casino, restaurants, IMAX theatre, and show venues. From there, one can see the hotel room floors surrounding the Atrium in a layered pattern, but newer guest rooms are also located in two ziggurat-shaped buildings outside the main pyramid. The lobby is decorated with Egyptian statues, columns and painted murals, but I heard that prior to the hotel's major renovation, it actually featured a replica of King Tutankhamen's tomb (authorized by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities), along with other Egyptian replica artifacts. They had been transferred to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum that runs an exhibit called, "Treasures of Egypt."
Apart from its Ancient Egypt theme, one of Luxor's most unique features are its elevators, which they call, "inclinators." They are built at a 39-degree angle that follows the building's inclined shape and provides guests with a dizzying (or fun, depending on how one looks at it) view of the enormous Atrium below. The ride did not make me feel woozy, but I found myself sometimes imagining how I could fall flat on the Atrium floor for all to see, should one of the elevator walls come off.
While staying there, I also learned two interesting pieces of trivia about the hotel. The first one is that when it first opened, it had an artificial Nile River that cut through the casino and that guests checking in were taken in from the reception desk to the elevator on an Egyptian-style boat by a costumed guide. Along the river were Egyptian art and attractions, including talking camels. Sadly, this attraction lasted only three years. It would have been fun to experience this.
The second one is that this hotel is said to be the most haunted hotel in all of Las Vegas. Rumour has it that its hallways are infested with ghosts and ghouls that frighten workers and guests at any time of the day or night. Some speculate that the builder's reference to ancient Egyptian culture without really paying attention to the meaning of its symbols and iconography has attracted negative spirits and brought some kind of curse to the property (for example, having only one Sphinx instead of two, the Sphinx facing east instead of west, and the absence of the third eye symbol that is supposed to be placed on the capstone of the pyramid, which are all essential Egyptian elements for warding off evil). Apparently, The Luxor has a high record of fatal accidents, murders, suicides, and unexplained deaths in its relatively young existence.
Others say that the spirits are those of the workers that perished during the harried construction of the hotel and whose deaths were covered up by the hotel management (and I can imagine how this building's shape could have been a construction challenge and a cause for many accidents). This story reminded me of a similar tale about the Manila Film Centre in the Philippines that is said to be haunted by the ghosts of construction workers, whose deaths from a construction disaster were covered up by then-First Lady, Imelda Marcos. According to urban legend, the bodies entombed in dried cement were never dug up, but instead built over because the Madam wanted the building finished in time for the international film festival she was hosting that year.
An even older theory is rooted more in local history. They said that the ground where The Luxor now sits was once off-the-beaten-path and was a popular burial ground for mobsters' victims. However one looks at it, it is never a good idea to build upon a former cemetery. Interestingly, others point out that the pyramid itself is a representation of a tomb and for the superstitious, it is never a good place to try your luck in gambling or stay for a nice vacation.
For the record, my husband and I did not experience anything paranormal, but we only really slept in our room at night. We were out and about exploring the rest of Las Vegas for most of our stay, so who knows? Hahaha!
Photo Credits:
Luis Villa del Campo, lasvegastrip.com, oyster.com, travel-tour-guide.com, vitalvegas.com
Comments