Also in reading this thread, I've noticed that most of you compare aliens to ourselves, their capabilities, their purpose and reasoning to want to visit. We don't know enough about ourselves or our own planet, how can we compare that aliens are anything like us in our way of thinking or behaving. And with the ancient peoples and why would they put in so much effort for so little return, well I have a theory on that one.........
10,000 years ago, they had nothing, in the form of knowledge compared to what we have now. So their way of thinking and perception of the world was so so different to how we think now. We understand that if there is a lightning storm going on while a loved one suddenly dies, that the two are completely random and not connected in any way, but to an ancient Egyptian, "The sky gods are angry and has taken my loved one away, we must build a pyramid to appease them" so out of fear mainly was their return, because their knowledge and understanding was so underdeveloped compared to ours now. Have you ever suffered or been close to someone suffering from severe anxiety? They say that is how our ancestors thinking was all the time. Trust me when you are stuck in anxiety, you'll do anything to get rid of that feeling, including (if you had the power to do so) making a nation build a pyramid to appease the sky gods. So that's my theory on it anyway.