An inspecting apparatus for detecting a foreign matter in a container having a recessed and protruding shape includes: illumination units arranged annularly on inner and outer sides of an annular carrier line and casting parallel lights onto the inspection subject from the outside thereof; image pickup units arranged on the outside of the annular carrier line and receiving lights from the inspection subject, simultaneously from two directions around the inspection subject, and picking up images of the inspection subject; wherein the image pickup units pick up images of the inspection subject in a state where an angle .theta.1 formed by light-receiving axes of the image pickup units is 30 to 90 degrees and an angle .theta.2 formed by the light-receiving axis of the image pickup unit and the light of the illumination unit next to the image pickup unit is 30 to 60 degrees.