Long before the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus with his revolutionary scientific idea of heliocentrism, people believed that the Sun was a supreme god (named Ra in ancient Egypt or Helios – in Roman Empire). According to ancient beliefs, this god wakes up every morning and starts moving across the sky in his golden chariot, bestowing all the people on Earth with the blessed light. Though these legends have nothing to do with the real state of affairs, they are, actually, much more valuable, interesting, and creative from the point of view of art.

Indeed, we know today that sunsets and sunrises are caused by the cyclic movements of our planet around the Sun. However, there is still something mystique and enigmatic in those short moments on the very edge between day and night. When the first rays of sun light appear on the horizon, the whole world starts an amazing chain of metamorphoses with shadows dancing around and objects starting to gain their usual contours. Similar phenomena can be observed when the Sun sets down in the evening, letting the whole world to be embraced by the darkness of the night.

So many artists illustrated the moments of dawn and dusk on their masterpieces. With the photographs below we want to share those unique emotions one feels while observing sunsets and sunrises in the real natural environment. Of course, these are only photographs and, perhaps, they cannot recreate the entire atmosphere; but images are sometimes capable of showing us such tiny details, which we may never catch in real…

Sunset by Vera Golovina

Sunset by Pavel Matveev

Sunset by Oleg Shel

Sunset by Dmitriy Zaharov

Cold sunrise by Andrey Jitkov

Pink sunrise by Yevgen Timashov

Sunrise by Ilya Belov

Sunrise @ Bosque del Apache by Wanderingval :-)

Sunrise by Serge Zherebtsov

Sunrise by Wanderingval :-)

Sunrise in mountain by Igor Goncharenko

Sunset by Katerina Sivitskaya

Sunset by Avi Morag

Sunset2, Croatia, Vrsar by S. Ratnikoff

Energy – Man and Nature Connected by David Orias

Sunset in Thailand by laurentlesax

MORNING by Franz Schumacher

L’espace Mioritique by Alin Stoianovici

Sweet September Sunset by battymaddie

Now & Forever by Bruno Abreu

Yaki Point by Michael Breitung

Untitled by Shazeen Samad

JUMP!!! by Ihdar Nur ; Dadank

The Match by Kevin W. Plaxco

Finding your place in the sun by Morkel Erasmus

The fabulous sunrise … by Michal Ostrowski

Heal Me by Sunrise V by Daniel Hasselberg

Underneath the Veil by Mary Kay

Sunrise by Michal Malinowski

Golden Moment by Doug Roane

Mesa Arch Sunrise by Barbara Read

Horses at sunrise by b.neeleman

Stag belling under the sunrise by David Garnier

Sandbridge Sunrise by Doug Roane

Heavenly sunrise by Daniel Portal

Morning Sea by kooi

Sunrise Bagan II by Wendy

Horizon in Mind by Craig Hunter Parker

VOYAGES by Cameron Cope

COAST by Rob Branigan

Down the Nile by Tommaso Nervegna

Sunset by Blagoi Anev

Sunrise to Sunset by Pedro Afonso

The bird by Sveta SOKOLOVA

Glitský – because the world is a rainbow by Patrycja Makowska

Industrial Sunset by Nikolay Patrikeev

Sunsets by Matvey Pesegoff

Skies by Christopher Frame

South West Australia by Chris Bishop

ARTWORK by Serg Zhyzhoma

Uma semana no paraíso by PRZlab

Sunset by Simone

Sunset by A-s-y-a

Sunset Silhouette by Andrew Apuya

Oregon Sunset by Judd Patterson

Traditional Sunset by Kevin Thom

An Electric Sunset by Blakannan

Sunset Trinity by Alpharius

Sunset VIII by WindyLife

Sunrise by Photo-Witch

Sunrise windsurfing by András Horányi-Nevy

At Sunrise by Hassan Ahmed

A perfect sunrise by jchanders

NJ ,,Sunrise by Brett Cohen

Misty Sunrise by Simon Atkinson