The structure of the general, inhomogeneous solution of (bosonic) Einstein-matter systems in the vicinity of a cosmological singularity is considered. We review the proof (based on ideas of BelinskiiKhalatnikov-Lifshitz and technically simplified by the use of the ArnowittDeser-Misner Hamiltonian formalism) that the asymptotic behaviour, as one approaches the singularity, of the general solutio...