Las Vegas Museums & Exhibits

Video compliments of the Travel Channel

For a city that's constantly evolving and shedding its latest identity, Las Vegas is home a staggering number of museums that trace its past. And though the famed Guggenheim Hermitage Museum inside The Venetian unfortunately closed its doors for good in May 2008, visitors will have no problem finding another cultural hot spot to fill their itinerary. Here are a few of our favorites:

Atomic Testing Museum: Turns out all that desert is good for something—from 1951 to 1992, the Nevada Test Site was the No. 1 site for nuclear weapons testing in America—and above-ground blasts were once visible to locals and tourists alike. (Who says the government hides everything from us?) Today, this must-visit museum [link to video] offers a mesmerizing peek behind the site's history, from emotional video of past workers, to official documents, to interactive displays and considerable memorabilia. The Ground Zero Theater, where you can experience a simulated atmospheric explosion, is enough to rattle your boots—and drive the solemnity of the site home.

Liberace Museum:
What does a man buy when he is long on money and short on taste? Let Liberace's legacy fill you in. This campy museum—which resembles a giant jewel from the outside, natch, and immediately reveals a humongous pink piano at its entrance—is packed with cars, costumes and jewelry, all glittering with over-the-top precious stones. Make sure you spot the world's largest rhinestone, given to the famed pianist by the Austrian company that supplied all of his costume jewels. Not that it's easy to miss, weighing in at 50.5 pounds (and worth some $50,000). A recent renovation has put a fine polish on the tacky splendor, from galleries filled with memorabilia to displays of Liberace as a young kid in Wisconsin, to recordings of the master's piano work (you can almost hear his campy costumes through the recordings).

Bellagio Fine Art Museum:
Fine-art lovers, rejoice. The Guggenheim's closing hasn't meant the death of serious museum-going in Sin City. The Bellagio Fine Art Museum has long been a must for art lovers in town. Populated by the private collection of Steve Wynn—owner of several Strip hotels and known even pre-museum-opening as a respected art collector—the museum holds works by serious masters, as well as retrospectives featuring Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet.

King Tut Museum: Rarely are replicas so satisfying. Egyptian artists using historically accurate linens, dyes and tools handcrafted this museum, a full-scale reproduction of King Tutankhamun's tomb. The inventory, which painstakingly matches the remains discovered by archaeologists Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter in 1922, has been carefully positioned to match the men's records. The result? Upon entering the tomb's antechamber, and walking through to the burial chamber and treasury, visitors will believe—if only for a second—that they've traveled thousands of miles and hundreds of years back to the young king's true tomb.