Cancun underwater sculpture museum: MUSA (Museo Subacuático de Arte)

If you want to check out the new museum at Cancun, Mexico, you will have to don snorkel gear and take dive under the sea, for it’s the world’s largest underwater sculpture museum. The Cancun underwater museum features a series of concrete sculptures by Jason DeCaires Taylor placed underwater off the coast of Isla de Mujeres and Cancún, Mexico. The project began in November 2009 with placement of 100 statues in shallow waters of the Cancún National Marine Park which had been previously damaged by storms. A total of 400 sculptures is planned to be installed by the end of 2010.

The primary purpose of the sculpture garden is environmental. Nearly 300,000 visitors flock to the area each year to explore the white sands and turquoise Caribbean sea, but they are causing damage to marine life. The idea is to eventually form artificial corals from the sculptures that will support a variety of marine life. There’s also hope that the touristic value of the underwater sculpture garden will draw people away from the over-visited and severely degraded natural corals of the nearby West Coast National Park.