What does "alignment with the Sun" mean?

Question

When you read about the pyramids in Giza or the Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland, it is always mentioned that they are perfectly "aligned with the sun". What does that mean?

Answer 1

The sun does not rise and set at due east and due west, except on the winter and summer solstices. Ancient people didn't have magnetic compasses, they had to use the sun for alignment.

Answer 2

The great pyramid is almost perfectly aligned with the cardinal directions, not the sun. It's something that can't be achieved today with out a lot of work.
Often ancient monuments were set up so that on one of equinoxes/solstices a ray of light would come through some kind of complicated passage and illuminate something at a certain time of day. This requires someone to notice the sun's movement along the horizon, to mark it, and to think of how it could be used to tell time.
A fabulous example of this is the pyramid at Chichén Itza in Mexico. The staircase is designed in such a way that on the equinoxes a series of triangular shadows forms and looks like a snake crawling on the stairs.
BTW, the sun rises and sets due east/west on the equinoxes, not the solstices. The solstices are the extremes to either side of east and west.

Answer 3

it means "lined up with"
* * and * are aligned