The Mirage

The Mirage is a defunct casino hotel resort on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The 65-acre (26 ha) property included a 90,548 sq ft (8,412.2 m2) casino and 3,044 rooms. Golden Nugget, Inc., led by developer Steve Wynn, purchased the future land of the Mirage in 1986. A hotel-casino, the Castaways, occupied a portion of the property and was demolished to make way for the Mirage. The resort opened on November 22, 1989, after two years of construction. It was the world's most expensive resort, completed at a cost of $630 million. It was also among the world's largest hotels. The Mirage was the first megaresort to open on the Las Vegas Strip, and its success prompted a building boom in the 1990s for other large resorts along the Strip. The Mirage opened with several non-traditional attractions for a Las Vegas casino, including animal habitats for dolphins and tigers, and an indoor tropical forest display. Its primary attraction was an artificial volcano that erupted nightly, providing free entertainment in front of the resort. In 1990, the Mirage debuted a magic show by Siegfried & Roy, who performed there for nearly 14 years. The resort also hosted Cirque du Soleil's first Las Vegas show, Nouvelle Expérience, which opened in 1992. Cirque du Soleil would return to the property in 2006, with the debut of Love, a show featuring music by the Beatles. Wynn departed the Mirage in 2000, when his company was bought by MGM Grand. Vici Properties acquired the property in 2022 and continues to own it, while Hard Rock International took over operations later that year, becoming the first tribal gaming operator on the Strip. Hard Rock intends to rebrand the resort as Hard Rock Las Vegas. The property will receive a complete renovation and...