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 Mayan maybe? 
 Whys that? 
 It was a tough question really because they're all fundamentally bad and what does great mean in the context. My shakey reasoning was 
Size, duration, sophistication (calendar, astral knowledge), sports, architecture, and many joined freely... These inspite of its time.
The other guys answer was better tbh 
 It was still a great answer. Out of all those traits which would you think to be most important? How do you feel that compares to other empires? 
 Hmm... I'm tempted to go with the relatively peaceful expansion (huge) but I think ima going with the knowledge (perspective) surrounding the calandar. 
If we're to believe the accepted interpretation of the times (I don't), the frame of reference the must have had means they embody a massive step in human development. Their influence must have been profound on their neighbours. Their influence ended up spanning the Incas and Aztecs. 
 Those are good reasons. They did make an impressive calender. Its also pretty cool they were one of the first civilizations to build millenia surviving structures: mayan pyramids.
Its always cool how many cultures simultaneously discovered the durability of the triangle all around the same time.

I'll have to look into the Mayans more. 👍 
 Yeah calander more accurate than atomic clock apparently. Interesting for sure. Ancient 👽 ? 
 Sounds like it could be an interprative problem.
One tracks the orbit of electrons around an atom, while the other tracks the orbit of planets around a star.
One of these is less affected by tiny changes in spacetime by gravity. An atomic clock in space vs on earth will appear to desync eventually, but they are both 100% accurate if the machines correctly record orbit.
While an atomic clock will be perfectly correct, it doesn't track time at the same scale as our calenders attempt to. 
 Fab reply... learning. Thx