The ancient Egyptian Sun hieroglyph is Gardiner sign listed no. N5, representing the sun-disc. It is one of the hieroglyphs that refers to the god Ra, the ancient Egyptian deity of the sun.
The sun hieroglyph is used in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing as a determinative to refer to events of time, for example when referring to "day xx" (of month yy'). Even the concept of a "snap-of-the-finger," a 'moment,' or 'instant' of time is represented using a Hippopotamus head (hieroglyph), Gardiner no. F3, combined with the sun-disc as the time determinative in a hieroglyphic composition block.
In the 24th century BC Palermo Stone, the sun hieroglyph is used on the Palermo Piece (obverse) of the 7-piece Palermo Stone to identify dates or specific "day-events" — "day of ...." A few of the King Year-Registers are dates only, for example in Row V (of VI rows): "Month 2, Day 23" (number 10, 10, 3).
Some other common hieroglyphs based on the sun hieroglyph include:
- Sun-with-rays (hieroglyph), Gardiner no. N8
- Sun-rising (hieroglyph) (associated with coronations, "Appearance of..." on the Palermo Stone), Gardiner no. N28
Ra, the Sun-god, is Gardiner listed no. C1, among the Anthropomorphic Deities. The god Ra is typically shown with a sun-disc upon his head, or in another common form with the sun disc encircled with the Uraeus (the cobra).
Luwian hieroglyph: The Luwian language hieroglyphs have 7 varieties for the syllables of 's' and 'a'. For 'sa' number 4 (Sa4), the sun hieroglyph is used.
