The last 20 years have been an exciting time for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy. Not only has the number of known very-high-energy gamma-ray sources rapidly increased to over 250 (from just a handful of sources), but the number of the types of astrophysical sources that are gamma-ray bright has also grown, revealing surprises along the way. Furthermore, in the context of multi-messenger studies, gamma-ray astronomy has show to play an important role. In this talk, after a brief introduction into the ground-based gamma-ray astronomy technique, we will look at the future of this window into the Universe’s most extreme processes; the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). In particular, we will discuss the goals of CTA, the potential CTA has in tackling some of the key questions in astroparticle physics, as well as some of the challenges CTA faces (and how they will be addressed!)
