Situated on the edge of Las Vegas Boulevard North, sizzling in the desert sun, is the place where the old neon signs of Vegas come to die. Once towering over the Vegas strip, flooding the streets below with a hazy rainbow of light, these signs are a surprisingly evocative remnant of the days of Elvis and Sinatra, of the Mafia and the Moulin Rouge and the atomic bomb.

The Neon Boneyard is part of the Neon Museum, an organisation dedicated to preserving and maintaining over 150 historic signs. The Boneyard offers guided tours, which run every hour throughout the day and into the evening and give visitors the opportunity to view the signs up close whilst a knowledgable guide explains the history and stories behind them. In the context of these Vegas relics, the stories come to life in faded technicolor, at once a piece of the past clearly recognisable in the present through the peeling frontage of casinos and hotels that still exist today.

Tickets for the Neon Boneyard tours are available by advance purchase from their website. General admission tickets are $18 and concessions for students, seniors, military and Nevada residents are $12