Structure and evolution of the inner Milky Way galaxy

The DENIS/ISOGAL near/mid-IR survey of the Milky Way for the first time pro bes stellar populations in the innermost obscured regions of our galaxy. Ag es, metallicities and extinction-corrected luminosities are derived for the se stars individually. An old metal-rich population dominates in the inner galactic Bulge, but there are also indications for the presence of a younge r population. The inner Bulge has a tri-axial shape, as traced by depth eff ects on the observed luminosity distributions.