An appearance inspection apparatus has conveying means for conveying an inspection object and surface shape inspecting means for inspecting the surface shape of the inspection object. The surface shape inspection means has a slit beam irradiating section for irradiating a band-shaped slit beam on the surface of the inspection object, an area sensor camera for capturing images of the slit beam, first and second optical mechanisms for receiving reflected lights of the slit beam on the downstream and upstream sides in a conveyance direction, respectively, and guiding them to the area sensor camera, and a shape judging section for judging appropriateness of the surface of the inspection object based on images captured by the area sensor camera. Optical paths of the first and second optical mechanisms allow images of the reflected lights to be formed on the area sensor camera in a state of being aligned laterally.