The VHE gamma-ray sky viewed with H.E.S.S.

During its first years of operation, the H.E.S.S. array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes has revealed a large number of new VHE gamma-ray sources, many of them discovered in a survey of the Galactic plane. Among these objects are supernova remnants with resolved morphology, pulsar wind nebulae, binary systems as well as a significant number of unidentified sources which do not show detectable emission in other wavebands. Spectra measured for extragalactic sources are used to constrain the level of extragalactic background light, with the result that the Universe is significantly more transparent to VHE gamma rays than previously assumed. The talk will provide an overview of the main findings from H.E.S.S., with emphasis on recent results.