Thoughts on history.

We have the ancient Egyptians, they're definitely best known for the pyramids. They did other stuff too and a lot of people can name other stuff they did. They've got their Sphinx (which really isn't that much different in that it's a stone structure, but whatever), mummies, hieroglyphics and enslaving whole peoples to get this shit done.

Then maybe thoughts go to the Greeks. They were pretty big on making weirdassed myths with Zeus fucking all sorts of relatives after slaying his father. They were also pretty huge on architectural advancement. We all love their columns and decorative ways. Philosophy was pretty popular there and we still teach Plato and Socrates in schools.

Moving on we had the Romans. These guys were the original Empire, conquering most of the known world and the places they didn't conquer were still regarded as trading partners. They were pretty big on robbery, too. Stealing and renaming Greek gods. Taking their architecture (and adding the arch, wooo, arch).  Then they went and gave that up and took Christianity. I don't really know about that being a step up, but that's a different topic all together.

Then we've got the Venetians. Known world wide for giving us the Venetian blind. And... ummm. Well, nothing. These people were around for a damned millennium (apparently, I had to look that up) and all we can associate them with are little thingies that you twist around to keep the sun out. Which just goes to prove my point. Ask anyone to name anything the Venetians did besides making their popular window dressing and no one will be able to. Did they sail the seas? I dunno, maybe. Did they make any great strides in astronomy? It's possible. For all I know they could have been the first people to develop cold fusion (yeah, maybe not). But one thing's for sure. These guys knew their shit when it came to windows!