Python is a powerful and widely used general purpose programming language. It has a simple syntax similar to the English language and allows developers to write programs with fewer lines of code compared to other languages. Python supports key data types like numbers, strings, lists, tuples, dictionaries, sets and Boolean values. It also supports common operators for arithmetic, comparison, assignment, logical, identity, membership and bitwise operations. Some key advantages of Python include being interpreted, having dynamic typing and readability due to indentation.