PYRAMID POWER : It’s not exactly an archeological find, but Las Vegas’ latest mega-hotel is surely culture of a sort

Flying into this gaming and entertainment center at night has always been spectacular. After hundreds of miles of desert darkness comes the splash of neon lights, first low on the horizon and then all around you.

But now, on a clear night, the light from Las Vegas will be visible from a plane all the way to Los Angeles, or so the promoters of Las Vegas’ newest hotel claim.

The source of this incredible light, is the pointed top of Luxor Las Vegas, the $375-million, 30-story, pyramid-shaped hotel-casino that opened to the public on Friday. The hotel is named after the Egyptian town of Luxor, home of the Pharaohs’ tombs.

But this pyramid is no tomb.

It was designed to be a throbbing entertainment mega-complex, and its heart is what its promoters claim is the world’s biggest atrium--as tall as nine Boeing 747s stacked on top of each other. Surrounding the atrium are the hotel’s 2,526 rooms, all with exterior views.

There is a 100,000-square-foot casino, seven restaurants, 236 suites with their own Jacuzzis, a 1,100-seat dinner theater, three cutting-edge film theaters with state-of-the-art audience participation movies designed by film innovator Douglas Trumbull, and a major prototype Sega electronic game arcade. Soon to open will be what the hotel’s owners, Circus Circus Enterprises, Inc., say will be an exact replica of King Tut’s Tomb.

Las Vegas has always had a knack for one-upmanship, and the Luxor is nothing if not unique. That light beam alone--supposedly the world’s most powerful, with the power of 40 billion candles--is enough to upstage almost anything else in this town. As this visitor landed at McCarran International airport a few days ago, the beam was beaming brightly, and you couldn’t miss the Luxor if you tried. The light is the product of 45 xenon units, and its designers claim that at a height of seven miles up, you could read a newspaper by it.

With the Luxor’s sleek black-glass facade providing the backdrop for a 10-story stone-colored sphinx that serves as the main entrance--and the hotel’s many authentically re-created Egyptian statues and murals--the hotel manages to look grand and uncluttered amid the glitz along The Strip.

The gaudiest thing about it is its context: the giant pyramid sits just next door to the medieval towers of the humongous Excalibur Hotel, and across The Strip from the tropical-themed Tropicana Hotel. Talk about incongruities.

If that’s not enough, there is a new monorail line running between the castle and the pyramid. (Both hotels are owned by Circus Circus.)

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A sneak-preview of the Luxor a few days before it opened provided a number of first impressions for this viewer. Like most of The Strip’s better hotels, Luxor impresses one first at its entrance. In this case, the sphinx’s eyes shoot lasers toward a towering obelisk and a lagoon. Then the waters “boil,” producing a steaming water screen on which Egyptian images are projected. The aim is to rival The Mirage hotel’s erupting volcano entrance and Caesars Palace’s shopping arcades with moving Roman statues.

As you enter, the sheer size of the atrium is overwhelming. Before you is what appears to be an ancient temple, but turns out to be one of the high-tech theaters. Behind it is what appears to be a mini version of Times Square, and, to the right, a futuristic structure. But those, too, are theaters, one with an amazing seven-story-tall screen and a steep, 45-degree seating plan that puts each row four feet above the next. The three theaters represent the past, present and future, not only outwardly, but in the high-tech thrills created for each.

Your eyes move upward toward the balconies on all four sides of the pyramid’s inward-sloping interior sides. There are no skylights, yet the light seems bright, and the atrium size and inward slope of the walls somehow distorts your perspective.

As the eye descends, you realize that you are standing on a bridge over the “River Nile,” an indoor stream that flows around the atrium’s perimeter. Right before you, but somewhat below eye level and under the ancient temple, is the brightly colored casino -- not hidden, but not at all a dominating the atrium space. In fact, if you look down from the floors above, it would be difficult to tell there is a casino at all.

The casino itself is the splashiest area of the hotel, in terms of the use of color. While most of the building has muted tones, the casino boasts an Egyptian palate of gold, red, blue, sienna and orange. The gaming area ceiling is decorated with reproductions of Egyptian symbols, including the scarab, a sign of good luck, bordered by murals of a powder-blue sky with puffy clouds.

Among the Luxor games are new slot machines that accept $5 and $10 bills.

Guests will check in to the hotel at a counter that looks like a giant Nile barge big enough for Cleopatra and her court. Then it’s up to your room by way of the Nile: You climb on a small barge floating on the Luxor’s indoor river, and it transports you to one of four elevator banks built into the corners of the pyramid. Luxor calls these “inclinators” because they move sideways--at a 39-degree angle--as well as upward, similar to a funicular.

As you float in your barge, all around you are reproductions of artifacts found in Luxor and nearby Karnak, site of ancient temples. Luxor Las Vegas officials hired Mark Lehner, an Egyptologist and host of the NOVA television series “This Old Pyramid,” to ensure that designs and hieroglyphics are exact copies.

The Luxor’s rooms are all on the perimeter, giving each an outside view. From the balconies overlooking the atrium, you enter rooms that are larger and softer-hued than in many Las Vegas resorts. The color palate uses natural tones, almost sand-colored. The furniture was specially designed in contrasting dark and light woods.

The room rates, slightly higher than the owner’s two other Las Vegas properties, Circus Circus and Excalibur, are expensive by Vegas standards, but moderate compared to most cities (see Guidebook).

Because of the pyramid’s 39-degree slant, it was interesting to see how the designers would utilize the wedge-shaped space in each room. But the slope is not as extreme as one would expect, and in place of curtains are sliding shades.

In the corner rooms on every floor, the sloping situation was compounded by having two such walls. The answer was to install Jacuzzis in the corners, so that guests can relax with views on two sides.

Designed by architect Veldon Simpson of Green Valley, Nev. (also the architect of the Excalibur and the soon-to-open MGM Grand Hotel and Theme Park), the Luxor has expected amenities as well, including the obligatory huge swimming pool/spa area, and a 1,100-seat dinner theater where a live stage extravaganza called “Winds of the Gods” goes on nightly.

But what impressed this visitor most were not all the amenities, but the sight of this huge black pyramid rising from the desert amid a sea of flashing neon. A classic, ancient form, equipped with some of the most advanced laser and high-tech technology available--at least for this century.

GUIDEBOOK: Digging Luxor

Luxor Las Vegas, 3900 Las Vegas Blvd. South, on the Strip adjacent to the Excalibur hotel. For reservations: telephone (800) 288-1000 or (702) 262-4000.

Room rates range from $59 to $79 midweek, $79-$99 on weekends. Corner Jacuzzi suites $150, regular suites $250-$350.

The hotel features three high-tech, audience-participation movie theaters, a Sega electronic game/ride arcade, a 1,100-seat dinner theater with a live Egyptian-themed show entitled “Winds of the Gods,” a health spa and pool and seven theme restaurants.

For more information: Contact the Nevada Commission of Tourism, Capitol Complex, Carson City, Nev. 89710; tel. (800) 237-0774 or (702) 687-4322.