An experimental investigation on the properties of the near wake behind the rotor of a Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) was carried out at model scale. Measurements were made with a stationary slanted hot-wire anemometer using the technique of phase-locked averaging. The primary aim is to study the formation and development of the three-dimensional wake. Five axial locations were chosen within four chord lengths of the blades over a range of tip speed ratios. The results show that during the downstream development of the wake, the wake centre traces a helical curve with its rotation direction opposite to that of the rotor. The distribution of mean velocity behind the HAWT rotor reveals an expansion and a decay of the three-dimensional wake. The shapes of the mean velocity distribution are similar along the blades span at the same downstream axial location. It is shown that the turbulence levels in the wake are higher than those in the non-wake region. The circumferential component and the radial component of the turbulence intensity are higher than the axial component. Our study offers some food of thought for better understanding of the physical features of the flow field as well as the performance of HAWT.