  The pressure and the energy density of the $SU(3)$ gauge theory are
calculated on lattices with temporal extent $N_\tau = 4$, 6 and 8 and spatial
extent $N_\sigma =16$ and 32. The results are then extrapolated to the
continuum limit. In the investigated temperature range up to five times $T_c$
we observe a $15\%$ deviation from the ideal gas limit. We also present new
results for the critical temperature on lattices with temporal extent $N_\tau =
8$ and 12. At the corresponding critical couplings the string tension is
calculated on $32^4$ lattices to fix the temperature scale. An extrapolation to
the continuum limit yields $T_c/\sqrt{\sigma} = 0.629(3)$. We furthermore
present results on the electric and magnetic condensates as well as the
temperature dependence of the spatial string tension. These observables suggest
that the temperature dependent running coupling remains large even at $T\simeq
5T_c$. For the spatial string tension we find $\sqrt{\sigma_s}/T = 0.566(13)
g^2(T)$ with $g^2(5T_c) \simeq 1.5$.
