It is too bad Egypt does not try and restore the external layer the Pyramids had. From ancient text it said the Pyramids would glisten bright from the sun.
IIRC, they had a smooth limestone covering that was bright white.
IIRC, they had a smooth limestone covering that was bright white.
It would have been very impressive, to be sure. But I don't think it's going to match the experience you have in mind.
Since any such modern facing would completely hide all of the authentic material, you might as well just build a completely modern structure elsewhere. With modern building techniques it wouldn't take all that long.
If you want to stand inside a big pyramid shape made of modern materials, you can go to Las Vegas. From inside it looks like any other building, though I suppose the rooms with the slanting windows are faintly neat.
So the outer sides of the pyramid are these very precise steps with amazing accurancy, and it's just filled in (where there aren't chambers) with... piles of rocks?
For $X dollars, you can pay to have a cubic foot of stuff interred in the pyramid, for future historians to find. If a pyramid-sized pyramid can hold Y such lots, can you sell enough to pay for the construction?
It doesn't have to be anywhere specific, just pick a spot that's relatively dry and has appropriate stone nearby. Run it as a tourist trap afterwards to pay for whatever ongoing costs are needed to keep people from disassembling it for raw materials.
It was polished fine limestone, though. Maybe it wouldn't have had the same optical qualities as polished marble, but it could [in theory] easily have been incredibly bright with a high reflectance. Modern polished limestone can have a strong gloss almost indistinguishable from polished marble, but maybe that's from modern sealants, polishers, or power tools?