Cancun’s Underwater Sculpture Park

Cancun’s Underwater Museum : Museo Subacuático de Arte
Yucatan Peninsula : Cancun : Mexico

Just 10 meters beneath the sea level, here is a park of some 400 concrete sculpturs(though not yet complete) is going to be the world’s largest underwater museum.Yap ! I am talking about a museum of statues which is situated under the sea, located in the National Park on the West Coast of Isla Mujeres, Punta Cancun and Punta Nizuc,an off-shore area of Isla de Mujeres.

These life-size figures, which were molded from various members of the ethenic community, will form a large artificial reef aiming to draw visitors and sea life to this uninhabited area of the park. The first set of 200 sculptures is scheduled to go underwater in June 2010. The project began in November 2009 as three sculptures were sunk under the supervision of prominent artist and creator of the underwater sculptors Jason de Caires Taylor.

Objectives of The Project

Cancun is a prominent tourist attraction. A huge number(more than 200000) of tourists come here every year for under water diving, to rejoice on the white sands and in the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea.This huge tourist traffic is a reason for degrading the marine resourses of the national park. In fact, the natural corals by West Coast National Park are very badly ruined. Both of these issues helps to build this sculpture garden.Main objectives to build this submarged garden are- to recreate the environment for coral species so that these tiny Cnidarian may retain their possesion and to to foster the touristic value for the so-called underwater sculpture garden that will never fail to pull the people of all over the world.

Interesting Facts

These statues have a common enemy too. Hurricane could displace and destroy this garden.Therefore, Jason de Caires Taylor uses special cement to make those sculptures, which is ten time harder than those for the common builder's. This cement is coral friendly. all these statues are weighing almost 120 tons, standing on a thick fiber glass. Before dive in there, the readers may like the following tube[Seeing is believing]:

from National Geographic

Success !

The first three sculptures have already been a big draw, showing the growth of corals in only three months and grabbing the interest of tourists. This clearly shows the great success that the museum will have as more figures are dropped in the water to become the home of an abundant marine life and a wonderful exhibit for visitors.

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