Perhaps the best measure of the impact the Mirage has had upon Las Vegas is that now, over ten years since it opened, it's hard to remember quite what was so different about it. Completed in November 1989, it was the first new hotel to be built from scratch on the Strip since 1973. Its high-rise Y-plan design was perfect for its prime position, commanding the point where the Strip curves northeast to parallel the rail tracks toward downtown. Owner Steve Wynn, however, eschewed many of Las Vegas's most time-honored traditions. He spared no expense on fixtures and fittings for the three thousand guestrooms, he neglected neon in favor of plating the entire facade with 24-carat gold stripes, and he even proclaimed that from now on Las Vegas was going to be a family destination.

By common consent, Wynn's $620 million gamble was risky even by Las Vegas standards, and it was no secret that the Mirage could only pay its way by making $1 million clear profit from its gaming tables every day of the year. The fact that it succeeded - not in every specific goal, but in the one detail that counts in Las Vegas, financially - transformed the city. However, in due course the opening of Bellagio saw the Mirage relegated to second-best even within the Mirage Resorts organization, and since 2000 it has been just another cog in the vast MGM-Mirage machine. While still holding its own, it no longer stands out from the crowd, and guests who previously stayed here as a matter of course now have half a dozen top-rank Strip casinos to choose from.

One of Wynn's most radical innovations lay in recognizing that the increasing numbers of pedestrians on the Strip called for a new kind of architecture. Driving past a casino, however big, you've barely enough time to read the slogans on its signs and billboards; walking past, on the other hand, you're free to stop and stare for as long as you like, and also to change your plans and wander inside. The much-vaunted " volcano " outside the Mirage was created in order to lure tourists in off the Strip at night - a time when they're in the mood to spend money, but might not otherwise want to venture out of their own hotel. It's basically a lumpy fiberglass island, topped by palm trees and poking from a shallow artificial lagoon, which "erupts" in genteel cascades of water and flame every fifteen minutes between nightfall and midnight. Anything less like a volcano would be hard to imagine, but for many years jostling crowds nonetheless filled the sidewalk every evening to catch a peek. At last, people seem to be ready to move on, so you may find you have the place to yourself.

The volcano also serves to signal the tropical theme of the Mirage , not that you'll need reminding if you go inside. Entering its opulent central atrium, housed beneath a geodesic dome, feels like stepping into a lush garden. Narrow footpaths meander away in various directions, skirting flowerbeds planted with an artful mix of fake and real vegetation. Off to the right, a massive thatched roof shelters the hotel's registration area , while the giant fish tank located behind the check-in desks teems with pygmy sharks and stingrays.

Away to the left, a busy corridor leads past a glassed-in environment of molded mock marble that's home at unpredictable times to the white tigers that feature in the stage show of illusionists Siegfried and Roy. Seeing them there is free; the alternative is to pay to enter the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat , reached via a landscaped ramp that leads up from the pool area at the back of the property (Labor Day to Memorial Day Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri 11am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-5pm; dolphins Mon-Fri 11am-7pm, Sat & Sun 10am-7pm; Memorial Day to Labor Day garden Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri 11am-3.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am-3.30pm; dolphins Mon-Fri 11am-5.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am-5.30pm; $10, under-10s free, or $5 on Wed when only the dolphin area is open).

This surprisingly spacious zoo - a better deal than Mandalay Bay 's Shark Reef aquarium - is as the name suggests divided into two distinct parts. The first consists of two interconnected pools, in which you can watch dolphins both above and below the water. It claims to be an educational and research center, so the dolphins aren't made to perform tricks, but they're encouraged to "exercise," which comes to much the same thing. Beyond that, enclosures in the gardens hold the world's greatest concentration of big white cats, including snow leopards and heterozygous white lions, all given names like "Destiny." Siegfried and/or Roy, who regale visitors with soporific anecdotes via "audio wands," are gracious enough to acknowledge that when it comes to saving the world's wildlife, "we cannot do it alone."

Siegfried and Roy, incidentally, have been appearing at the Mirage 's custom-built theater ever since it opened. Though their image might now perhaps be a little dated, they've always done great business. At one stage, they were due to be joined at the hotel by a Michael Jackson attraction, but that proposal was quietly shelved after the allegations of child abuse, some of which mentioned Jackson's stays at the Mirage.

All in all, non-gamblers will find that the Mirage offers less to see and do than the newer megacasinos. It remains an efficient moneymaking operation, however. You can buy anything from a fluffy white-plush toy tiger in the logo shop up to an Armani suit in the banally titled "Street of Shops," while the restaurants range from a good-value buffet to Japanese, Chinese, and American options, none of them quite on a par with what's available in the Venetian or Bellagio . In the end, it's the humble slot machine that keeps the whole place going, earning two-thirds of the Mirage 's million-plus-a-day bonanza.

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