The European Extremely Large Telescope

The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) is a future
ground-based optical and infrared telescope with a primary mirror
diameter of 39m. It will be the largest optical-infrared telescope in
the world when it enters operation in the first half of the next
decade.  The project is currently in preparation for construction, and
groundbreaking at the site in Chile took place recently on 19th
June. In this talk I will present a summary of the science case, which
ranges from studies of exo-planets to the most distant galaxies and
cosmology.  I will also present the telescope design and plans for the
instrumentation suite. Finally I will briefly describe some technical
work currently underway in preparation for construction.