The status of the HEGRA array of five imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes is briefly discussed. Our current understanding of the telescopes based on Monte Carlo studies and recent stereoscopic observations of TeV γ-rays from the Crab Nebula, allows the following conclusions on the performance of the instrument: effective energy threshold E eff ≃500 GeV ; angular resolution δθ≃0.1°; energy resolution ΔE/E⩽25%; minimum detectable flux for 100 h observations of point sources J min ≃25 mCrab ; minimum detectable energy fluence of transient ⩽1 h flares of TeV γ-rays S min ≃5⋅10 −8 erg/cm 2 .