In Chapter XVII. I quoted from the inscriptions relating to the alignment of the axis of the temple of Hathor at Denderah. It will be remembered that the king, while stretching the cord, had his glance directed to the _āk_ of the constellation of the Thigh. Further, we saw in the last chapter that the amplitude of the temple axis is 71½° N. of E. A copy of Biot's plan giving his value of the orientation is given on the next page. I have shown how truly the temple of Isis was pointed to Sirius. We have now to try to find a star towards which the temple of Hathor may have been pointed in like manner. It will be generally understood that in an inquiry of this kind there are very many difficulties, chiefly depending upon the uncertainty of the building-date of the original foundation, and upon the indeterminate nature of the information available. But although we meet with these difficulties in the case of the temple of Hathor, there are many from which we are free. In the case of many of the temples in Egypt we have no knowledge of the tutelary divinity. For a great many temples no observational data exist; they have not been properly measured--that is, we do not know exactly in what direction they point or what their amplitudes are; and, further we do not know anything of the horizon at the temple building, so as to be able to make the necessary corrections due to heights of hills. [Illustration: ORIENTATION OF THE TEMPLE OF HATHOR AT DENDERAH (BIOT). (THE TEMPLE OF OSIRIS ON THE ROOF IS ALSO SHOWN ON A LARGER SCALE.)] This premised, I will now return to the statement regarding the temple of Hathor, to see what can be made of it on the view that either the middle or the chief point, that is, the brightest star, of the constellation of the Great Bear as we now know it, was the one referred to, and that the cord was stretched to the star on the horizon. The first question which arises is, Was there any reason why δ Ursæ Majoris at the centre, or α the brightest, should have been used as the orientation point at any time? Was there any reason why any special sanctity should have been associated with either? Certainly not, in the case of δ, on account of its magnitude, because Dubhe, not far from it, is much brighter; and possibly not, in the case both of δ and α, on account of the time of their heliacal rising. We seem therefore in an _impasse_ along this line of inquiry; but a further consideration of the question brings out the remarkable fact that at three widely-sundered points of time the stars α Lyræ, α Ursæ Majoris, and γ Draconis have been the brightest stars nearest the North Pole, and with such declinations that α Lyræ would be visible at one of the dates, α Ursæ Majoris at another, and γ Draconis at another still--all rising in nearly the same amplitude far to the north.