  Here we present new optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope of the NGC
253 central region, which reveal numerous discrete sources in a ring--like
structure. This is combined with data at infrared, millimeter, radio and X-ray
wavelengths to examine the nature of these discrete sources and the nucleus
itself. We find that the majority of optical/IR/mm sources are young star
clusters which trace out a ~50 pc ring, that defines the inner edge of a cold
gas torus. This reservoir of cold gas has probably been created by gas inflow
from a larger scale bar and deposited at the inner Lindblad resonance. The
family of compact radio sources lie interior to the starburst ring, and in
general do not have optical or IR counterparts. They are mostly SNRs. The radio
nucleus, which is probably an AGN, lies near the centre of the ring. The X-ray
emission from the nuclear source is extended in the ROSAT HRI detector
indicating that not all of the X-ray emission can be associated with the AGN.
The lack of X-ray variability and the flat radio spectrum of the nucleus,
argues against an ultraluminous SN as the dominant energetic source at the
galaxy core. The diffuse emission associated with the outflowing superwind is
present in the central region on a size scale consistent with the idea of
collimation by the gas torus.
