This text explores the beauty of topology and homotopy theory in a direct, engaging, and accessible manner while illustrating the power of the theory through many, often surprising, applications. It offers a comprehensive presentation that uses a combination of rigorous arguments and extensive illustrations to facilitate an understanding of the material. The author covers basic topology, ranging from the axioms of topology to proofs of important theorems. He also discusses the classification of compact, connected manifolds, ambient isotopy, and knots, which leads to coverage of homotopy theory.