  The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a second-generation
continuously operated, wide field-of-view, TeV gamma-ray observatory. The HAWC
observatory and its analysis techniques build on experience of the Milagro
experiment in using ground-based water Cherenkov detectors for gamma-ray
astronomy. HAWC is located on the Sierra Negra volcano in M\'exico at an
elevation of 4100 meters above sea level. The completed HAWC observatory
principal detector (HAWC) consists of 300 closely spaced water Cherenkov
detectors, each equipped with four photomultiplier tubes to provide timing and
charge information to reconstruct the extensive air shower energy and arrival
direction. The HAWC observatory has been optimized to observe transient and
steady emission from sources of gamma rays within an energy range from several
hundred GeV to several hundred TeV. However, most of the air showers detected
are initiated by cosmic rays, allowing studies of cosmic rays also to be
performed. This paper describes the characteristics of the HAWC main array and
its hardware.
