Just go to the archived site to view them.
Some years ago, as a direct result of my ongoing extensive research into the profound influence of eclipses, especially total solar eclipses, on ancient humanity's religious beliefs and "mythology" it occurred to me that the Egyptian scarab beetle god Khepri was almost certainly inspired by ancient Egyptian observations of total solar eclipses. Upon seeing the image of Khepri from an Egyptian 'Book of the Dead' that I used in these animations my intuitive hunch was considerably reinforced. The Egyptian scarab beetle god Khepri, as it is depicted in this image with the ray-like wings, distinctly resembles scientific drawings of total solar eclipses made by 19th century astronomers. Further research into the behavior of scarab beetles (aka dung beetles) and English translations of ancient Egyptian religious texts such as the Pyramid texts, the Coffin texts, and the Egyptian 'Book of the Dead' which the Egyptians actually called 'Coming Forth By Day' has convinced me that the scarab beetle god Khepri was in fact inspired by total solar eclipse phenomena and that Khepri represents the "black sun" that is formed by the new moon as it is seen during the total phase of a total solar eclipse (i.e. totality) when the darkened new moon seems to be endowed with the radiant white "wings" of the sun's corona.
It has recently come to my attention that the Egyptian astronomer Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem, who has also extensively researched how total eclipses of the sun profoundly influenced ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, as is evident from their various creation myths and their religious iconography, has come to the very same conclusion about the scarab god Khepri entirely independently of me. The above animation clearly illustrates how the "boat of the sun" that is associated with Khepri and various other Egyptian sun gods such as Ra and the Egyptian phoenix known as the bennu bird was inspired by the thin golden crescent of the partially eclipsed sun which corresponds both in shape and in gold color to ancient Egyptian papyrus reed boats. The 19th century black and white scientific astronomical drawing of a total solar eclipse is virtually identical to this ancient Egyptian depiction of the scarab god Khepri. I intend to provide more details in the very near future, since I have a slightly different take on this scarab beetle as total solar eclipse god thesis than Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem, one that provides some additional reasons as to why the Egyptians associated the scarab beetle with total solar eclipse phenomena, but for now I will suggest reading his interesting web page about how total solar eclipse phenomena inspired the ancient Egyptian scarab beetle god known as Khepri or Khepera.Even the modern scientific astronomers at the High Altitude Observatory perceived a "scarab" in the sun's corona of the 1998 total solar eclipse
Here are some alternative search terms for the Egyptian scarab god - Kheper, Khepera, Khepri, Khephri, Khepra, Khephra, Khopri, Kheperi, Khepery, Chepri, Chopri, Egyptian scarab beetle god, ancient Egyptian scarab god, scarabaeid beetle, family Scarabaeidae, scarab amulet, Scarabaeus sacer, dung beetle, genus Scarabaeus
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