At first I attributed to Archaeological remains, but there are whole abandoned Assyria cities that get less attention than the Great Pyramid alone. Then I thought it may have to do with European occupation, but European powers also controlled much of the Middle East in the early 20th century to gain an interest in their ruins. So what gives?
Also, this question spawned from a seperate, but related thought. Why do the Persian Empires get so little attention in western academia?
I wrote a lengthy post over on r/history about why Sumer gets less attention than ancient Egypt. Be sure to check out the Chiera quotation, which emphasizes the points I'll make below.
I'll reproduce my main points here:
Ancient Egypt, unlike Sumer and other Mesopotamian societies, was never lost to public consciousness. Many of Egypt's temples and ruins were still clearly visible for centuries after the Roman period, and Greek authors like Herodotus preserved knowledge of ancient Egypt (albeit of questionable accuracy). Compare that to Sumer, which nearly disappeared from historical knowledge except for glancing references in the Old Testament. Most Sumerian sites required extensive excavation before coming to light and still remain largely unexcavated. I've written previously about the modern rediscovery of ancient Mesopotamia.
Egypt is much more easily accessible to tourists than Iraq. Millions of people visit Egypt each year, and photographs, videos, virtual tours, etc. have flooded the internet. In contrast, much of Mesopotamia has been off-limits to tourism for decades.
Egypt has had many popularizers (Zahi Hawass, Mark Lehner, Salima Ikram, Joann Fletcher, etc.) who've succeeded bringing ancient Egypt into popular awareness. Countless popular books have been written on ancient Egypt, including dozens for children. Assyriology, unfortunately, hasn't produced many charismatic individuals working to popularize Mesopotamia. Irving Finkel is a rare exception, and, though not trained in Assyriology, Eric Cline too has worked to spread awareness of the ancient Near East.
There is very little popular media that focuses on Mesopotamia, whereas we've been flooded with movies set in ancient Egypt (The Prince of Egypt, The Egyptian, The Mummy, Cleopatra, Agora, etc.), historical fiction set in ancient Egypt (e.g. Pauline Gedge, Christian Jacq, Wilbur Smith), and even Egypt-inspired video games (e.g. Assassin's Creed Origins).
Egyptian art and architecture is flashier than the art of Mesopotamia, partly due to Egypt's natural resources and excellent conditions for preservation. It took nearly 50 years after Henri Frankfort's publication of The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient in 1954 for an updated synthesis of Mesopotamian art to be written. The blunt reality is that Egyptian temples like Medinet Habu, Karnak temple, Abu Simbel, Philae, and Dendera are more impressive to tourists than the mudbrick ruins of Mesopotamia, and Egyptian pyramids inspire awe and curiosity (and, sadly, conspiracy theories and bizarre pseudohistory). The ziggurats of Mesopotamia and Iran are impressive, but most are in poor condition aside from the heavily reconstructed ziggurat at Ur. Some beautiful finds have been excavated in Iraq - the "royal" tombs of Ur, the queens' tombs of Nimrud, and the Neo-Assyrian reliefs of Nineveh, Khorsabad, and Nimrud come to mind - but generally Mesopotamian art is overshadowed by Egyptian art among the general public.
Why do the Persian Empires get so little attention in western academia?
Keep in mind that "western academia" is not really homogeneous. Due to colonialism and the way that archaeological concessions have been made over the last couple hundred years, western countries tend to "specialize" in particular countries or regions. The archaeology of Cyprus, for example, has been dominated by the British because Cyprus was controlled by the UK until 1960, and there is still a strong British presence on the island. The archaeology of Anatolia has been dominated by the Germans, not least because they have been excavating at the Hittite capital of Ḫattuša since 1906 in addition to other important sites like Troy and Miletus. The French, meanwhile, have been particularly active in Syria at sites like Qatna and Mari and in Iran, where they've excavated major sites like Susa and Chogha Zanbil. For that reason, Achaemenid studies was jumpstarted by French scholars like Pierre Briant, and you'll find that ancient Persia is well-represented in French scholarship in ancient history.