VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: The Luxor is Sinking
Posted on: April 13, 2026, 07:21h.
Last updated on: April 14, 2026, 03:16h.
Did you know the Luxor is sinking just like the parts of Titanic on display inside of it? At least, that’s the takeaway you’ll get from “The Luxor Pyramid Is Sinking – Vegas’ Most Dangerous Casino,” “Inside the Collapse of the Luxor: Vegas’ Most Neglected Casino Hotel,” and other popular social media videos.
Only no local or national news reports — either from the Luxor’s 1993-95 construction or in the three decades since — have ever mentioned any danger of the property “sinking into the sand,” as claimed by the self-certified expert who hosts the Buried Secrets podcast.
Myth Interpreted
We traced this myth to a single sentence in a 2010 online encyclopedia entry: “Not long after the opening, the hotel learned that part of the building was sinking into a soft spot in the usually hard desert floor and adjustments were made to halt it.”
What you just read was posted on Oct. 6, 2010, to the Online Nevada Encyclopedia. This is a legit educational website produced by a statewide nonprofit called Nevada Humanities. So, what gives?
If you click on the article above, its URL begins with http://www.onv-dev.duffion.com. That’s a development/staging server — essentially the “behind-the-scenes” or testing version of the same encyclopedia, a common practice with academic and non-profit encyclopedia projects. This is where drafts of new entries reside before they get reviewed and approved for the main site.
And indeed, if you search the main Online Nevada Encyclopedia site, no Luxor article currently exists.
Casino.org contacted Jeff Burbank, the respected veteran Las Vegas journalist who authored the inaccurate draft entry, and he declined to comment about it.
That Sinking Feeling
Another possible source for the sinking Luxor myth — one that predates the online encyclopedia entry — is a Sept. 8, 2010, Las Vegas Review-Journal article headlined “Luxor’s Floor Under Review.”
It reported that Clark County ordered part of the Luxor pyramid’s basement — office space not open to the public — vacated after inspectors found two partially cast support columns there, their unfinished state hidden above drop ceilings.
An engineering review found that the columns weren’t part of the original plans and weren’t carrying load, though MGM finished building them anyway.
But county inspectors also flagged “a structural issue” involving the load-bearing capacity of the casino level above, which sat on what they called a “deficient slab.”
MGM shored up the basement with temporary supports, then undertook permanent corrective measures. Since then, the Luxor has not been in danger of compactification and was never “sinking into a soft spot.”
However, that’s exactly what happened to the Luxor’s next-door neighbor — at least during its construction.
Wrong Casino
According to an August 1998 report in the Las Vegas Sun, construction on the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel was halted when it was found to have settled unevenly as its weight squeezed water out of an underlying aquifer.
“Settling is normal for buildings erected here, but the core of the 43-story, 3,700-room hotel-casino has sunk slightly more than 17 inches, while one wing has settled 8 to 9 inches and the other about 2,” the newspaper reported.
To halt further movement, Nicholson Construction, a Pennsylvania firm known for deep‑soil stabilization was brought in. The company installed 536 pin piles, spaced about four feet apart, beneath the building. These steel cylinders– up to eight inches wide — were drilled through the concrete mat foundation and reinforced with high‑pressure grout.
After the structure was deemed stable, construction continued and no further sinking occurred.
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