Jan Meeus published a recent book about rare and interesting solar system phenomena, and alignments were a big topic.
Alignments seen from the earth are common alignments that differ only in how 'compact' they are.
The one during December 1997 was actually not very striking since the planets were spread out over a sizable stretch of the sky along the Ecliptic. Still more compact 'alignments' happen every few hundred years or so. The second kind of 'alignment' is what you would see from a location near the sun with planets positioned in their orbits within a few degrees of each other. Plotted with the sun at the center of concentric orbit rings, the planets would form a line directed roughly towards the sun. To get within 10 degrees, the timing has to be even more precise and this 'coincidence' or synchrony takes thousands of years.