ALPHA: The Friends of Antiquity is presenting its 180th lecture series, which will highlight the architecture of ancient Egypt.

Lecturer and professor Avra Liakos from the NIU School of Art has chosen “Ancient Egypt: Aspects of Death and Eternal Life” as her speech topic. The lecture is scheduled to be held in room 102 of the Visual Arts Building at 8:30 p.m. today.

Dimitri Liakos, professor and chairman of art history, said, “The lecture … has to do with death and eternal life in Ancient Egypt. It is an illustrated lecture with slides of tomb paintings and sculptures that were done 3,000 years ago.”

The focus of the lecture will be the belief of eternal life. “The pyramids would not be there today if they (Egyptians) didn’t have the belief of eternal life,” Liakos said.

The American public has been interested in the Egyptian arts found in the pyramids. Liakos said, In the 1960s there was a book titled “Chariots of the Gods,” written by Claus von Daniken, which started a following that believed extraterrestrial life had something to do with the creation of ancient art.