AMBITIOUS plans to build a pyramid are set to come to fruition with experts from across the globe helping a Horsforth man turn his dream into reality.

Steve Ward hopes to generate billions of pounds for peace and environmental projects and to solve the 4,500 year mystery of how the Egyptian pyramids were built. His creation will also house time capsules which will be sealed inside, to be opened 1,000 years from now.

The project has gained the support of governments around the world as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Paralympian David Stone.

Now work is due to start on the Earth Pyramid project within the next two years following the offer of land on the edge of a new city being built outside Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Construction is expected to take about four years and will cost around one billion US dollars.

Steve, 45, a fencing contractor, came up with his vision while watching news about the Copenhagen climate change conference in 2009 with his daughter Stephanie, now aged 24.

"The governments basically decided to do nothing," he said. "We started thinking about the future of the planet and came up with the idea of a time capsule."

"We wrote to every government in the world and said we have got this idea and would you like to be involved. Nineteen governments replied to us saying they wanted to be part of it."

The simple idea of a time capsule grew to become a 50 metre high pyramid. Steve has worked tirelessly to get the scheme off the ground, with help from his wife Vicky and their children Stephanie, Tia, Hallie and Ty.

Over the years he has persevered in the face of scepticism from many.

"You tell people you want to build a pyramid and straight away they think you are nuts," he said.

"For seven years we have had the door shut in our face so many times."

He added: "We never thought we would get this far but it is really starting to take shape."

Arup - the company responsible for the structural design of the Sydney Opera House - is involved with the design and the engineering side of the project. French architect and pyramid expert Jean Pierre Houdin is lending his support and advice to the scheme.

Steve said: "No pyramid has been built for four and half thousand years. We will be building it by hand using ancient techniques and we are going to try to solve a four and a half thousand year old mystery of how the great pyramids were built."

It is planned that the structure will house contributions from every government as well as from indigenous peoples and children from all over the world. The scheme will include a digital preservation chamber - the brainchild of David Stone - where people will be able to store information and details of their own lives for future generations. Around 1,000 exclusive time capsules will be paid for by the wealthy.

Steve said: "That side of the project has the potential to generate billions of pounds for peace and environmental projects."

Children from all over the world will be invited to submit suggestions for how the money raised should be spent.