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I guess all my life I've been looking for that special, raw feeling of being truly alive. I'm not sure how to describe it, but traveling to that place and finally standing in the center of the 40-km wide ring in the desert gave me that feeling. Does that make any sense?

Being there gave me a very weird feeling, but other than some mirages (like a lake on the horizon that was definitely not there a moment ago, or a part of the landscape rising and floating above the sand), I don't remember anything particularly weird.

I'd say several things. First, the fact that one can actually go there, without any travel agents, fancy equipment, guides etc. Just an ordinary person, using ordinary transport, can reach one such place. Secondly, the feeling of being there is something that's hard to put down in words: as I climbed the ridge of the innermost circle, I could see the ridges of the other circles bending around it, all the way to the horizon. Even the largest open mines on the planet are just a couple of kilometers in the diameter, which is tiny compared to this thing.

But I guess the weirdest thing for me personally was the fact that something like that even exists and was created naturally, despite its almost perfect shape.

That's a tough one. The least useful piece of gear I brought (though not expensive at all) was, and yes I am ashamed to say it, an umbrella. I took an umbrella into the desert. To this day I don't know why.

The most expensive thing I had was my camera, which was around 500$. During a desert storm a grain of sand got inside and stuck onto the inner surface of the lense, and I was desperate because I couldn't take it out, especially since it was a new camera that I'd bought just before the trip.

As for the most inexpensive but useful thing, I think I can answer that: earplugs. Sometimes we slept at some kind of local "hotels" where a bunch of people share a large room, sleeping on mats on the floor. Without the earplugs, I don't think I would've been able to fall asleep there.

I remember reading that many artifacts have been found there over the years, but all of them seem to belong to primitive cultures (arrowheads, stone tools and so on). However, the only things I found there were rocks and more rocks. So, to answer your question - I have no idea.