The Egyptians created the earliest and most elaborate of the sun cults. Sometime in the fourth millennium BCE, the moon calendar was discarded in favor of solar time telling. Gradually, the pantheon of local gods gained sun-like qualities and eventually coalesced into a supreme solar deity, Ra, whose worship was centered in Heliopolis in Lower Egypt. Through the pharaoh, His son, He ruled the world as He ruled the heavens. The order and rule of government, of society, indeed, life itself, was deemed a direct inheritance from the sun.
Solar symbolism is pervasive in Egyptian art, architecture and literature.
According to the records of the Spanish conquistadors, the Inca rule of Peru was one of the most organized and orderly regimes in the world. By the time of the European occupation, their empire reigned from Ecuador to northern Chile. All political, social and religious organization was focused upon the Sun Temple in the center of Cuzco, the capital. The Palace of Gold, the shrine in honor of Inti, the Sun from whom all riches flow, was lavishly decorated with that solar metal. It was situated so that each morning the rising sun would strike a gold-cast solar disc and bathe the entire interior with reflected yellow light.