The MGM Grand hotel and casino from the west

The MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, is the largest hotel in the world, with over 5000 rooms. It also houses a casino, numerous shops and night clubs, and a major concert venue. It is owned and operated by the MGM Mirage company. It is predominantly green in color.

The hotel known as the "MGM Grand" used to be about a mile north of the current location on the Las Vegas Strip, at the site now occupied by Bally. At approximately 07:10 on the morning of November 21, 1980, a fire broke out in a delicatessen at that building, a 26 story resort with over 2,000 hotel rooms. About 5,000 people were in the hotel and casino at the time of the fire. Eighty-seven people died in this fire.

When the MGM Grand opened at its current site in 1993, it included the Grand Adventures theme park on property adjacent to the casino. The plan was to make Las Vegas more "family friendly" by providing activities for children who were too young to gamble. The theme park performed poorly, however, and did not reopen for the 2001 season. On December 5, 2002, MGM Mirage announced that the former theme park would be developed as a luxury condominium and hotel complex.

Originally, the MGM Grand was built with an extensive Wizard of Oz theme (hence the green "Emerald City" color of the building) and was decorated extensively with Wizard of Oz memorabilia. In 2000, the hotel underwent a renovation and almost all traces of the "Oz" theme were removed.

External links

• MGM Grand homepage (http://www.mgmgrand.com/)
• Las Vegas Travelog (http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/las_vegas/mgm.html) - includes about 15 photos of MGM Grand

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