When the sun sits near the horizon its light travels through far more atmosphere, which scatters away the blue and leaves the warm end of the spectrum. The result is light that is orange rather than white, and that arrives sideways rather than from overhead.
Both properties flatter subjects. Warmth reads as inviting, and side lighting sculpts — it reveals texture in a landscape and gives a face dimension instead of the flat, hollow-eyed look that midday sun produces. Shadows also stretch long, adding depth and shape to otherwise plain compositions.
The catch is that it is neither golden nor an hour. Duration depends on latitude and season: near the equator the window can collapse to twenty minutes, while high-latitude summers can stretch it for hours. The light also changes fast, so the practical approach is to arrive early, pre-compose, and shoot continuously as it shifts.