VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: The Luxor’s Sphinx Jinx

Posted on: October 13, 2025, 07:21h. 

Last updated on: October 12, 2025, 06:20h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Vegas Myths Busted.

The Great Sphinx of Giza in Egypt faces east, toward the rising sun — a symbolic alignment tied to ancient sun worship and rebirth. Its famous modern Las Vegas replica, the Luxor Sphinx in Las Vegas, faces west, toward the Strip and away from the sunrise.

The Luxor’s replica sphinx stands 110 feet all, which is about 40 feet taller than the ancient Egyptian original. (Image: Shutterstock)

Social media blogs and vlogs, and guided ghost tours of Las Vegas, have for decades made this claim, blaming this solar misalignment for a string of unfortunate events that have occurred at the property.

These include:

  • The death of 42-year-old construction worker Steven Yandell of Arizona, who was killed on December 23, 1992 when a boom struck him during the property’s construction
  • The September 25, 1996 suicide of an unidentified woman who leapt from an interior balcony on the 26th floor and landed near the entrance to the buffet
  • A motion-activated pipe bomb that exploded on May 7, 2007 in the Luxor parking garage, killing 27-year-old food-court worker Willebaldo Antonio

“The sphinx was built facing the incorrect direction,” a video posted by the “Buzzed Vegas” Facebook page informed its 151,000 followers just last week, “so a lot of people think the Egyptian gods are upset about it.”

Myth Interpretation

The design of the Luxor was part of then-owner Circus Circus Enterprises’ broader strategy to expand its portfolio of themed resorts to attract families, following the success of its Excalibur (opened 1990) and preceding its Mandalay Bay (opened 1999).

The Nile River Ride ran flat-bottom barges on a 3,000-foot long artificial river encircling the casino floor from 1993 to 1996. (Image: Luxor Las Vegas)

The company purchased the land in early 1992, already knowing what it would build there — a massive Egyptian-themed resort with a pyramid-shaped hotel, replica sphinx and a Nile River ride tracing the pyramid’s perimeter. (The last element was dismantled in 1996, three years after the resort opened — not, as the “Buzzed Vegas” video claims, “because of so many apparitions” and “so many creepy things on there” but because of low ridership and operational inefficiencies that disrupted guest flow.)

The Sphinx’s alignment was chosen for maximum exposure to traffic on the Las Vegas Strip. (Nobody would see it if it faced away from the Strip, and only half as many people would if it faced entirely north or south, the directions in which traffic flows on Las Vegas Boulevard.)

It can be safely assumed that no consideration was given to pointing it in the “correct” direction to appease ancient gods.

The Luxor was built on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip, which runs north-south, but its front entrance faces east.  (Image: Micrrosoft CoPilot)

It is beyond the purview of this column to debate the validity of claims solely on the basis of their paranormal nature. (Suffice it to say that, though we consider ourselves a person of science, we once witnessed something that cannot be explained by the current state of scientific understanding.)

But we took on this myth precisely because busting it requires no such debate whatsoever.

And that’s because, contrary to the myth, the Luxor’s sphinx doesn’t face west. It faces due east, just like the Great Sphinx of Giza.

Before you profess to be an expert in something, maybe start with mastering east from west.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Click here to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.