President Hosni Mubarak and Mrs. Mubarak witnessed at noon Wednesday the total sun eclipse at Salloum city. The phenomenon took place at 12:38 pm (10:38 GMT) on Wednesday.

The sun was first partially eclipsed. Later, however, the sun was totally eclipsed for at least 4 minutes. During that time, Jupiter and Venus could be seen to the naked eye. People shouted "God is the greatest". The temperature was down from 32 to 14 centigrade.

The rare phenomenon that lasted for almost three minutes and 58 second was watched by some 70,000 tourists in addition to 500 scientists.

Scientists said that total solar eclipse will take place in Egypt again in the year 2027 and could be wiitnessed from the Valley of Kings, Luxor.

• video of President Mubarak's watching of the solar eclipse
• video of the solar eclipse phenomenon in Salloum