  These lecture notes are an introduction to toric geometry. Particular focus
is put on the description of toric local Calabi-Yau varieties, such as needed
in applications to the AdS/CFT correspondence in string theory. The point of
view taken in these lectures is mostly algebro-geometric but no prior knowledge
of algebraic geometry is assumed. After introducing the necessary mathematical
definitions, we discuss the construction of toric varieties as holomorphic
quotients. We discuss the resolution and deformation of toric Calabi-Yau
singularities. We also explain the gauged linear sigma-model (GLSM) Kahler
quotient construction.
