Visit These Underwater Museums From Around The World!

Explore a trail of historic shipwrecks scattered along the coral reefs of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and buried in the sandy shallows a few miles offshore. These wrecks are strewn over several miles and offer days of adventures as well as lessons in maritime history. The nine ships along this Shipwreck Trail span three centuries represent three broad periods of Keys maritime history: European Colonial, American and Modern.

For each wreck, the underwater archaeological preserves give divers clues into maritime eras with submerged guides that include the mooring positions; vessel’s history; a site map; plus potential marine life.

At this submerged archaeological park, visit the wonders of the classical city of Baia – which was an ancient Roman town situated on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples, and now in the comune of Bacoli. Previously a prominent resort city for centuries, Baia was abandoned in the 8th century and then submerged underwater. Today the ancient remains of this city can be explored through one of the world’s few underwater archaeological parks. Visitors can view the crumbled structures and amazingly preserved statuary of the city through glass-bottomed boats, while snorkelling, or even during their scuba dives.

This underwater contemporary art museum is located in the National Marine Park in Cancun and Isla Mujeres area and composed of over 500 submerged sculpted figures based on real people. These sculptures are gathered about ten meters below the sea’s surface in the waters surrounding Cancun, Isla Mujeres, and Punta Nizuc. The museum includes four installations by artist Jason deCaires Taylor and can be seen via glass-bottomed boat tours, snorkelling plus diving routes. The exhibit is designed to attract marine life and encourage the growth of coral.

The underwater Museum Lanzarote “Museo Atlántico” was opened just recently in 2016 to promote education and preserve and protect the marine and natural environment as an integral part of the system of human values. The museum is located 12 metres deep in the pristine waters near the south coast of Lanzarote, in the Bahía de Las Coloradas and hosts 300 individually designed sculptures by British artist Jason de Caires Taylor. Known to be Europe’s first underwater museum, the Museo Atlántico Lanzarote covers a 2,500-square-metre surface that divers and scuba divers have access to.

The city of Caesarea in Israel that once served as one of the most sophisticated trade ports for the Roman Empire now lies 20 feet below sea level. Opened in 2006, the new underwater museum at Caeserea called the “Herod’s Harbor” focuses one of the largest ports of the Roman Empire, inaugurated in 10 BCE. Visitors float their way through 36 different sign-posted sites to examine different artefacts such as marble columns, anchors, and shipwrecks from Phoenician and Byzantine eras.

Organised more than 15 years ago, this Underwater Museum hosts a collection of busts of communist leaders and the heads of socialism throughout the history of USSR—and therefore is also called, “Alley of Leaders”.  The idea began with a scuba diver Vladimir Broumenskyy, who collected thousands of discarded busts and figures of erstwhile Communist icons—including Lenin, Stalin, and Marx—and turned them into a subaquatic “Alley of Leaders.” Situated about a hundred meters off the coast at Cape Tarhankut, the westernmost part of Crimea, at a depth of ten to twelve meters, it now has more than 50 different busts.

Opened in 2006, this 800 square metres park was first of British photographer and artist Jason deCaires Taylor’s underwater gardens. This park contains 75 works crafted by him, that are concrete and rebar figures (a combination of human forms and still lives) all anchored beneath Moliniere Bay at depth of 5-8 meters. These works are accessible by scuba diving, snorkelling and glass-bottom boats.

Also, read: My Underwater Adventure l Sabah l Malaysia

You can visit this Underwater Museum in Sandy Bay, off the coast of Roatan, Honduras where history meets entertainment. This is the only underwater museum in Honduras and the snorkelers can spot authentic pieces, including pre-Columbian burial masks and 17th-century sundials, along with replicas of Spanish galleon ships and Mayan-era monuments.

Add these underwater museums to your bucket list and do let us know about your underwater adventures!