On February 21st and October 21st every year, the rising Sun illuminates the sanctuary of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, a phenomenon popularly known as the "Wonder of the Sun". The temple was built by King Ramesses the Great [Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC)].

There are no monuments or records explaining the special choice of the illumination days. It is clear that the Sun is on the same location of the celestial sphere on both days, this has led me to speculate that probably just one day is associated with the temple dedicated to the Sun (Re-Horakhty), and Ramesses himself.

To a people that worshipped the Sun and the Moon, eclipses represented very special cosmic events. In my paper "The Wonder of the Sun", using an eclipse prediction software, I scanned the eclipses that occurred during the reigns of Pharaoh Ramesses II and his father Pharaoh Seti I. I found that a total solar eclipse was visible in Egypt in 1223 BC and the Julian Day number of the eclipse's day was: J1 = 1274785.876389, (the corresponding calendar date was not available.) Checking the coordinates of the Sun on the sky globe on the eclipse's day and applying simple algebra showed that J1 corresponds to February 21, 1223 BC.

Thus, the illumination of the sanctuary is most probably associated with this historic eclipse. A similar, fascinating phenomenon is associated with a most famous monument: the mighty Sphinx of the Giza Plateau. Twice a year, on March 21st and September 23rd (the two equinoxes), the Sun rises exactly from the east, and illuminates the face of the Sphinx (which faces the east), and sinks behind its right shoulder shortly before sunset.

In my paper 'The Alignment of the Sphinx', I have managed to show that a deep partial solar eclipse began soon after sunrise on September 23, 2546 BC (Year 12 of the reign of Khafre, builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza and the Sphinx) and could be very probably the purpose of the east-west alignment of the Sphinx. Also I have shown that the ancient name of the Sphinx,'Hor-em-akhet' could be translated as 'Hor in the Eclipse' and not only 'Hor in the Horizon'.

We now have two massive relics: The Sphinx (Dynasty IV, Old Kingdom) and the Great Temple of Abu Simbel (Dynasty XIX, New Kingdom), that are so oriented to face the rising Sun on days on which solar eclipses occurred. We now better understand the influence of eclipses in ancient Egypt.

Still, however, the influence of eclipses in ancient Egypt has many aspects to show . . . King Amenhotep IV (Dynasty VIII), who soon changed his name to Akhenaten 'Servant of the Aten', and displaced the capital of the Egyptian Empire from Thebes to Akhetaten 'Horizon of the Aten', a city he built for the cult of the Aten (the Sun's disc), on the eastern bank of the Nile between Thebes and Memphis. The reason behind the choice of the location of the city has not been disclosed by archaeologists!

In my paper 'The Philosopher Pharaoh and the Total Solar Eclipse', I have proven that the location of the site of the city was chosen according to the total solar eclipse that was visible in Egypt in 1352 BC.

There has been a controversy over the period of co-regency between King Akhenaten and his father King Amenhotep III. In my paper 'An Astronomical Approach to the Puzzle of Co-regency', I provided a possible solution proving and dating this co-regency to have started in 1356 BC.

I have always had an idea that the Egyptian obelisks, which were principle objects in the ancient Egyptian solar cult, must be related to past solar eclipses. They could have been given as offerings to the solar gods in response to solar eclipses.

In my paper, the 'Power Stations of Queen Hatshepsut', I have shown that the the Queen erected her hefty obelisks, which were covered much with Electrum (an alloy of gold and silver), to light the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) when it gets dark through a solar eclipse. I have also provided new translations for some terms that occurred in the texts inscribed on the obelisks such as the "Horizon of Heaven", which I translated as 'eclipse'.

In my paper 'The Charioteer and the Total Solar Eclipse', I have shown the relation between the obelisks of King Seti I and the total solar eclipse that was observable in Egypt in 1286 BC.

In my paper 'The Emperor and the Total Solar Eclipse', I have shown the possible relation between the Lateran Obelisk (which belongs to King Thutmose III) and the total solar eclipse of 1429 BC, in which the Sun rose eclipsed for Egypt.

In my paper 'Eclipses and Roman Obelisks', I have shown that the Romans very possibly moved some Egyptian obelisks to Rome due to solar eclipses that occurred in Rome.

Plotting the azimuth of the rising Sun as a function of time (in days), throughout the year, yielded a step pyramid, i.e., the Sun climbs from the winter solstice to the summer solstice in steps. This could have been the reason why the ancient Egyptians built step pyramids, and that was the subject of my paper 'Step by Step'.

While the obelisks of Queen Hatshepsut at Karnak describe a solar eclise that occurred in Year 15 of the Queen's reign, I found that the text fits only the annular solar eclipse of 08/23/1464 BC. Thus, Year 15 of Hatshepsut's reign is 1464 BC, and, consequently, Year 9 of Amnhotep I's reign is 1517 BC. We now have an absolute chronology of the New Kingdom. Fortunately, the obelisks of Queen Hatshepsut served as the Rosetta Stone for the Pharoanic chronology. I named this paper: 'The Dream that Has Come True'.

Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem is a young professional astronomer from Egypt, graduated in 1995. His research work is mainly on comets and archaeo-astronomy and is also a very dedicated observational astronomer, and has a good reflector telescope. Aymen can be contacted at: aymoib@frcu.eun.eg .