The Hathor Temple foundation is based on Sirius. It's just that simple. That means the whole massive building is aligned to Sirius. That also means while we have all those giant Hathor face portraits on the outer columns and throughout the temple, it's scientific alignment was towards Sirius.
To explain it in more detail: The Egyptian New Year Day is defined by the heliacal rising of Sirius, i.e. the first appearance of that star after its yearly pause of hiding below the nightly horizon, which happened shortly before sunrise at the end of July, a few days before the yearly Nile flood. The position at the horizon for that event is about 18° south of true East or 108° from true North. That angle is the same as the orientation of the southern temple wall as the whole temple is rotated clockwise by about 18° from true North. That was not random if you compare how precise the Great Pyramid was aligned perfectly to true North without rotation.
That means if someone was standing in that unique open air kiosk on top of the Hathor Temple, which is located in the south western corner, and faces through the entry door, which positions the viewing orientation in parallel to the southern wall, the person would see the rising of Sirius at the New Year perfectly in the center of vision. When viewing it from the temple roof the observer has the advantage to see it a few seconds earlier than other observers on the ground.
Photo of the roof kiosk, named Hathor Kiosk: [de.wikivoyage.org] (bottom of page, "Hathorkiosk auf dem Dach")
Map showing the Temple alignment:
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For comparison the Great Pyramid with its true North alignment:
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The location where Sirius rises has according to standard model in astronomy most likely changed over time. But near the celestial equator where Sirius is located, the potential changes are not that dramatic over 3000 years in relation to the horizontal position during the heliacal rising. Please be aware that the star Sirius moves quite fast in front of all the other stars (proper motion) so it partly compensates an axial precession.
Even with a calculated constant axial precession of the standard astronomy model and the proper motion of Sirus itself in front of the other stars, the 108° direction of the Sirius heliacal rising at Dendera doesn't change much between 54 BCE over 1583 CE to present 2022 CE. I guess that's due to a geometrical effect at the time of the rising and local latitude as the long term movement mostly changes the local time of the rising (vertical position) and not so much the horizontal position (direction on the horizon from North). From about 107.8° to 108.7° on the horizon I'd say when checking with astronomy software [stellarium.org] . That's only about 2 times the full Moon diameter and the Moon is visually pretty small if you compare it to the whole sky.
Sirius heliacal rising location on the horizon 2022 CE, 1583 CE, 54 BCE:
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To explain it in more detail: The Egyptian New Year Day is defined by the heliacal rising of Sirius, i.e. the first appearance of that star after its yearly pause of hiding below the nightly horizon, which happened shortly before sunrise at the end of July, a few days before the yearly Nile flood. The position at the horizon for that event is about 18° south of true East or 108° from true North. That angle is the same as the orientation of the southern temple wall as the whole temple is rotated clockwise by about 18° from true North. That was not random if you compare how precise the Great Pyramid was aligned perfectly to true North without rotation.
That means if someone was standing in that unique open air kiosk on top of the Hathor Temple, which is located in the south western corner, and faces through the entry door, which positions the viewing orientation in parallel to the southern wall, the person would see the rising of Sirius at the New Year perfectly in the center of vision. When viewing it from the temple roof the observer has the advantage to see it a few seconds earlier than other observers on the ground.
Photo of the roof kiosk, named Hathor Kiosk: [de.wikivoyage.org] (bottom of page, "Hathorkiosk auf dem Dach")
Map showing the Temple alignment:
For comparison the Great Pyramid with its true North alignment:
The location where Sirius rises has according to standard model in astronomy most likely changed over time. But near the celestial equator where Sirius is located, the potential changes are not that dramatic over 3000 years in relation to the horizontal position during the heliacal rising. Please be aware that the star Sirius moves quite fast in front of all the other stars (proper motion) so it partly compensates an axial precession.
Even with a calculated constant axial precession of the standard astronomy model and the proper motion of Sirus itself in front of the other stars, the 108° direction of the Sirius heliacal rising at Dendera doesn't change much between 54 BCE over 1583 CE to present 2022 CE. I guess that's due to a geometrical effect at the time of the rising and local latitude as the long term movement mostly changes the local time of the rising (vertical position) and not so much the horizontal position (direction on the horizon from North). From about 107.8° to 108.7° on the horizon I'd say when checking with astronomy software [stellarium.org] . That's only about 2 times the full Moon diameter and the Moon is visually pretty small if you compare it to the whole sky.
Sirius heliacal rising location on the horizon 2022 CE, 1583 CE, 54 BCE:
