  Due to the foreground extinction of the Milky Way, galaxies become
increasingly faint as they approach the Galactic Equator creating a ``zone of
avoidance'' (ZOA) in the distribution of optically visible galaxies of about
25%. A ``whole-sky'' map of galaxies is essential, however, for understanding
the dynamics in our local Universe, in particular the peculiar velocity of the
Local Group with respect to the Cosmic Microwave Background and velocity flow
fields such as in the Great Attractor (GA) region. The current status of deep
optical galaxy searches behind the Milky Way and their completeness as a
function of foreground extinction will be reviewed. It has been shown that
these surveys - which in the mean time cover the whole ZOA (Fig. 2) - result in
a considerable reduction of the ZOA from extinction levels of A_B = 1.0 mag
(Fig. 1) to A_B = 3.0 mag (Fig. 2). In the remaining, optically opaque ZOA,
systematic HI surveys are powerful in uncovering galaxies, as is demonstrated
for the GA region with data from the full sensitivity Parkes Multibeam HI
survey (300 < l < 332 deg, |b| < 5.5 deg, Fig. 4).
