Bold New Las Vegas Hotels Make for Strange Skyline : Tourism: A 30-story pyramid, full-size pirate ship, lions and sphinxes grace mega-lodgings.

Yes, those are monumental construction sounds you hear coming from southern Nevada. Expect the ring of cash registers next.

While other cities and states across the United States are turning to gambling as a new tourism stimulator and revenue raiser, the gaming veterans in Las Vegas are raising the stakes--and some really big buildings. The effort will yield a strange new skyline, a variety of novel lodging experiences and some attractive competition-driven prices.

Before the end of this year, the city will gain about 10,500 hotel rooms, bringing the total inventory to about 85,000. Most of the new rooms are in three monster-sized new casino hotels that feature, respectively, a 30-story pyramid, full-scale pirate ships and an 88-foot lion; that’s evidently what it takes to get attention in a town that already has talking statuary and changing false skies in its shopping malls (The Forum at Caesars Palace) and white tigers and fuming fake volcanoes at its casino entrances (The Mirage).

“Obviously, these guys are not building on a whim,” says Myram Borders, news bureau chief for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “I think the industry’s confident that there’s going to be plenty (of business) for everybody.”

For starters, nobody should spend too much for lodgings in Las Vegas. According to studies by the Convention and Visitors Authority, 72% of visitors to the city paid nightly room rates of $50 or less.

How do the hotels do it? By taking your money at the gaming tables, of course, and by dealing in high volume. In the first half of this year, the city’s hotels and motels together averaged an 86.3% occupancy rate--among the highest in the nation.

Here’s a look at the coming attractions:

* MGM Grand Hotel and Theme Park: 5,005 rooms, to open Dec. 18. No, that’s not a misprint. That room total appears to make the MGM the largest hotel ever. Four casinos, totaling 171,500 square feet. A 15,200-seat arena, known as the MGM Grand Garden, which will house performing arts, boxing and other sporting events. Thirty-three acres of child-friendly adjacent theme park, an 88-foot-high MGM Lion above one entrance. Health club and spa. Neighboring the hotel, a game center for children fills 30,000 square feet.

Room decors include the following themes: Hollywood (mirrors, stars’ pictures on the walls), Oz (emerald green carpet and Wizard of Oz characters on walls) and Casablanca (ceiling fans and big plants). Eight restaurants and a handful of fast-food outlets in a food court. The theme park includes 12 major rides and shows, including one that simulates Grand Canyon rapids. Construction costs are said to have reached $1 billion, yet the project is well ahead of the original schedule, which called for completion around February.

Most rooms run $49-$259 nightly, and suites begin at $180. Spa users will pay a service charge. To visit the theme park, adults must pay $25 for an all-day pass, children $20. The hotel is already sold out Dec. 29-Jan 1. Phone: (800) 929-1111.

* Luxor Las Vegas: 2,526 rooms, opened on Friday (for full story, see Page L21). A 30-story, pyramid building shelters a winding Nile River that offers glimpses of 4,000 years of Egyptian history. An atrium billed as “the world’s largest.” Three city-like gathering areas representing ancient Luxor, New York’s Times Square and a city of the future, and a trio of “participatory adventures” that use virtual-reality technology to simulate landscapes in the past, present and future.

From the top of the pyramid, a powerful xenon light beam with the brightness of 40 billion candles is trained on the skies. Ten-story sphinx. Seven-story movie screen. Video arcade filling 18,000 square feet, along with 100,000 feet of casino space. Angled elevators at the pyramid’s corners, 236 suites with Jacuzzis, seven eating establishments. Health club and spa. Rooms done up in Egyptian theme decor. Owned by Circus Circus Enterprises, Inc., and built over 18 months at a cost estimated at $375 million.

Rates for regular rooms run $59-$79 midweek, $79-$99 weekends, but rise higher during holidays and major conventions. The spa costs $15 per day for one or two persons. “Participatory adventures” are expected to run about $4 each. Phone: (800) 288-1000.

* Treasure Island at the Mirage: 2,900 rooms, from the owners of The Mirage hotel and casino next door, to open Oct. 27. Thirty-six floors. From the strip, passersby will see mock sea battles between a 90-foot-long pirate ship and a British frigate in a big pool. (In Las Vegas, the press release notes, “the pirates always win.”) Rooms decorated with blond woods. Sample features: a 200-foot slide into the pool. About 90,000 square feet of casino space. Two wedding chapels. Cirque du Soleil performers in long-term residency. Health club and spa. Estimated cost: $430 million. In conjunction with the opening, Mirage officials plan to collapse and implode the nearby Dunes Hotel (which they also own). No word on future plans there.

Room rates $45-$99, suites $150-$400. Spa fees $15 per person. New Year’s Eve already sold out. Phone: (800) 944-7444.

These three projects seem plenty to keep Las Vegas visitors busy for the foreseeable future, but yet another round of mega-development may already be in the offing. Earlier this month, ITT Corp. disclosed plans to build a $1-billion, 5,000-room resort on 35 acres of strip property bought from MGM Grand mogul Kirk Kerkorian.

Reynolds travels anonymously at the newspaper’s expense, accepting no special discounts or subsidized trips. To reach him, write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.