1997, Astroph. J., 477, 163.
The color-magnitude diagrams of ~7 x 105 stars obtained for 12 fields across the Galactic bulge with the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment project reveal a well-defined population of bulge red clump giants. We find that the distributions of the apparent magnitudes of the red clump stars are systematically fainter when observing toward lower Galactic l fields. The most plausible explanation for this distinct trend is that the Galactic bulge is a bar whose nearest end lies at positive Galactic longitude. We model this Galactic bar by fitting the observed luminosity functions in the red clump region of the color-magnitude diagram for all fields. We find that, almost regardless of the analytical function used to describe the three-dimensional distribution of stars in the Galactic bar, the resulting models have the major axis inclined to the line of sight from 20 deg to 30 deg, with axis ratios corresponding to x0:y0:z0 = 3.5:1.5:1. This puts a strong constraint on the possible range of the Galactic bar models.