No Pyramids in Luxor Egypt!

I lived in Las Vegas for 17 years and the entire time I was very annoyed by one thing, the Luxor Casino and its big glass pyramid. Why? Well, because in 1991 I spent time in Luxor, Egypt and there are no pyramids there–absolutely none! So, why in the world did they name a Casino the Luxor Pyramid? I have no idea; maybe because it just sounds cool. The big pyramids that everyone sees in movies and photos are found in northern Egypt just outside of the massive city of Cario. By the way, Cario is so big, it makes Los Angeles look like small town. The big three pyramids are known as the Giza pyramids, not the Luxor pyramids. Luxor is actually a small town in southern Egypt sitting right on the Nile. It is known as a tourist hub for those wanting to see several things in one stop: the Valley of the Kings and Queens, the Karnack Temple (a HUGE temple on the north side of Luxor) and the much smaller Luxor Temple. Note, there is a “temple” in Luxor and no pyramid.

Luxor Temple

The Luxor temple is rather small and can easily be seen in an afternoon. I love this smaller temple. I think I was enchanted at the entrance when I saw the a path perhaps 50 yards in length leading up to the entrance. The sides were lined with rows of seated sphynx just about the right side for a person to ride on (and I’m guessing more than one visitor has taken that photo opportunity). At one time the entrance had two large oblisks (right and left), however one of these was moved to France and only the left one remains. Although impressive in size and construction, it will only take an afternoon to see the entire structure and most tourists spend the rest of the day in the town of Luxor shopping or eating exotic foods (personally I found the orange juice in Luxor the best I have had anywhere in the world and I crave it every time I’ve had orange juice since).

Massive pillars inside Karnak Temple

Karnack Temple

A similar, but much larger, temple is found on the north border of town of Luxor known as the Karnack temple. It took me three days just to wander through the Karnack temple. The place is stunningly large and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were one of the largest and most sprawling sites in Egypt with much of it in reasonable repair. There are several sections of pillars which used to hold up a roof. I don’t know how tall these were, but it seemed to be over 100 feet in height. The photo here hardly does it justice, but you can see by the size of the people that the sheer height is stunning!

Across the Nile, river which runs on the west side of Luxor, are the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Again, no pyramids are to be found. Mostly holes in the ground for chambers where royalty here buried (ie King Tut).

Conclusion

Anyway, the point of this blog post is just to complain about how marketing has warped things a bit in Vegas to give the impression there are pyramids in Luxor, when in fact there are not.