An endoscope having an elongated inserting portion inserted into a subject, characterized in that the inserting portion includes a tubular light guide member adapted to guide the light for illuminating the subject, the member is rigid enough to retain the shape of itself, an optical system and an image pickup device are provided in the interior of the light guide member and adapted to observe the subject, the image pickup device includes a solid image pickup element adapted to convert the light from the optical system into an electric signal, and a circuit board is electrically connected to the solid image pickup element.