  This paper presents a review of the fractal approach for describing the large
scale distribution of galaxies. We start by presenting a brief, but general,
introduction to fractals, which emphasizes their empirical side and
applications rather than their mathematical side. Then we discuss the standard
correlation function analysis of galaxy catalogues and many observational facts
that brought increasing doubts about the reliability of this method, paying
special attention to the standard analysis implicit assumption of an eventual
homogeneity of the distribution of galaxies. Some new statistical concepts for
analysing this distribution is presented, and without the implicit assumption
of homogeneity they bring support to the hypothesis that the distribution of
galaxies does form a fractal system. The Pietronero-Wertz's single fractal
(hierarchical) model is presented and discussed, together with the implications
of this new approach for understanding galaxy clustering.
