  From the archaeological point of view, the local dwarf galaxies are unique
objects in which the imprint of the conditions that shaped the early structure
formation can be studied today at high resolution. Over the last decade, this
new window into the high redshift Universe has started to be exploited using
deep wide-field imaging, high resolution spectroscopy and cutting edge N-body
and hydro-dynamical simulations. We review the recent advances in the
observational studies of the Milky Way dwarf galaxies, with the aim to
understand the properties of the population as a whole and to assist an
objective comparison between the models and the data.
