Abstract
An overview of the status of the 17 m diameter MAGIC telescope project will be given. During phase I, the telescope will reach a threshold of 30 GeV and a sensitivity of 6.0 10^{-11} cm^{-2} s^{-1}. First light is foreseen in mid 2001 and first observations in 2002. The expected capabilities of the telescope for high energy astrophysics and fundamental physics will be reviewed.