K_s vs. (Z − K_s) color–magnitude diagram of 66 million stars from 300 sqdeg in the bulge. This Hess CMD is very useful because it reveals in an unprecedented way very faint features, the complexity of the population, the effects of reddening, and the range of magnitudes and colors throughout the whole Milky Way bulge. Particularly interesting is the double peak of the red giant clump at K_s ~ 13.2 mag, separated by Δ(Z − K_s) = 0.55 mag. This is an evidence of the great dark lane across the Milky Way bulge. Completeness in the inner regions only becomes a problem for K_s> 16 mag. The reddening vector is associated with an extinction of E(B − V) = 1, based on the relative extinctions of the VISTA filters, and assuming the extinction law of Cardelli et al. (1989). Contour lines mark density levels in steps of 2% from the highest density. The source density is indicated in the vertical bar on the right, in units of 10⁶ sources mag^-2.