Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This presentation has the following goals: (i) to explain, within a historical context, some of the difficulties in disentangling our Galaxy’s three-dimensional structure; (ii) to summarise in broad terms what we presently know of this structure, concentrating on those features inferred from accurate distance measurements; (iii) to illustrate selected aspects in a visually stimulating manner; and (iv) to give a foretaste of the exciting results that lie ahead with future space astrometric experiments.</jats:p>