From the First Neutrino Telescope, the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array AMANDA, to the IceCube Observatory

With an effective telescope area of order 10,000 meter squared for very high energy neutrinos, a threshold near 50 GeV and a pointing accuracy of 2.5 degrees per muon track, the AMANDA detector represents the first of a new generation of high energy neutrino telescopes, reaching a scale envisaged over 25 years ago. We describe the calibration of natural deep ice as a particle detector as well as AMANDA's performance as a neutrino telescope. We discuss its expansion to AMANDA II in the coming Antarctic summer and, subsequently, to a kilometer-scale detector ICECUBE.