One fact that blew my mind recently is that Cleopatra is closer to our present time than to the creation of the pyramids.
"Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler. A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great."
So, inasmuch as she thought about the pyramids, it was as a colonizer.