I think it's Sirius, the "dog star". Notice its location relative to the constellation of Orion. Also, you'll notice this bright object you're seeing, Sirius, "rises" in the northeast sky a couple hours before dawn -- the helical rising. I was looking at it a couple nights ago, too. Very bright.

For the ancient Egyptians, this helical rising of the dog star, Sirius, the companion of Orion the hunter, signaled the annual flooding of the Nile River in lower Egypt (northern Egypt), depositing rich, black soil ajacent to the river, giving ancient Egypt its name -- KeMeT (the black land), and was the origin of the phrase, "the dog days of summer".

Today, the Nile River no longer floods due to the Aswan Dam, built with the help of the Soviet Union several decades ago.