Gold Pyramid House with Ramesses II statue

A pyramid-shaped building about 55 feet tall, set within a moat in Wadsworth, in Lake County, Illinois, was described in a June 2023 radio report as visible from the road; it was once clad in gold plating that neighbors eventually found too bright. ABC7 Chicago reported that the 17,000-square-foot Gold Pyramid House, built as a home, was begun by its owners in 1977 and finished in 1982, and that they ran tours for 17 years. Chronicle Media, covering the same building, said it stood on 10 acres, was built at one-ninth the scale of the Great Pyramid of Giza, and was clad in 8,000 plates of 24-karat gold at a reported cost of $1 million. The plates were removed in 2011 after neighbors complained of glare in sunlight. The operator's website describes a collection of Egyptian furnishings, artifacts and paintings that was once inside. Chronicle Media's 2018 report described three pyramid-shaped garages, an underground chamber resembling the tomb of Tutankhamun, and a statue of Ramesses II at the entrance, which it put at 55 feet and Roadside America at 64.

On July 17, 2018, a fire damaged the third through fifth floors, and firefighters drew water from the moat. The owners told ABC7 they hoped to rebuild. Roadside America says the pyramid had been rebuilt by 2022, and the June 2023 WROK report said the house could not be entered. Roadside America says tours were cancelled indefinitely after the fire. The operator's website, written before a planned reopening for the 2025 season, says the first floor and the tomb can be toured; the Lake County tourism bureau repeats that wording. The operator's events page also advertised a car show and costume contest for November 2025 and says the grounds are under construction.