Museums come in an incredibly wide range of varieties, from archaeology to history, art and ethnography. One type that most probably don't consider is underwater museums, nonetheless, there are a number of great underwater museums around the world and they have been becoming more popular over the last 20 years. So, let's take a look at three of these beauties, starting with the first modern underwater museum in Cancun.

Cancun Underwater Museum

The Cancun Underwater Museum – based in Mexico's Cancun as the name would suggest – is devoted to the art of conservation and it opened in 2010. As part of the museum there are three different galleries submerged between 3 and 6 meters (9.8 and 19.6 feet) deep in the ocean, which house a total of 500 sculptures from local and international figures. Snorkelers, scuba divers and tourists can visit the underwater exhibits, which are located at the Cancun National Marine Park, via a glass-bottom boat.

The museum was thought up by marine park director Jaime Gonzalez Cano, with the objective of saving the nearby coral reefs by providing an alternative destination for divers. Cano saw that the natural coral reefs were being damaged by tourists, anchors and divers. In particular the largest coral reef in Cancun, Manchones Reef, was receiving the most damage because it is the most often visited by divers and snorkelers. He had the idea of taking snorkelers and divers to an area where concrete reefs with some corals had been placed, to draw them away from Manchones reef, which turned into deploying underwater concrete sculptures as artificial habitats.

The statues are placed on the ocean floor with a special lift made for the statues so none would be damaged during the move. This included a 40-ton crane placed on a commercial ferry. The sculptures are created with pH-neutral marine concrete and are created above ground and cleaned before being taken underwater so they do not have any chemicals on them that may harm the water, animals or reef.

Museo Atlantico

Inaugurated in 2017, Museo Atlantico situated off the Spanish island of Lanzarote's UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, is the first underwater art museum in Europe and the Atlantic Ocean. The museum is accessible to divers and snorkelers.

The museum is among the top three in the world, along with the Sunken City of Cleopatra in Egypt, and is 300 meters off the beach in Las Coloradas on Lanzarote, the easternmost of the Canary Islands.

The project was designed by Jason deCaires Taylor to raise awareness about the fate of the oceans and took three years to plan and construct, including over 300 life-size casts placed on an area of previously barren seabed of 2,500 square meters (26,909 square feet).

The formations in the museum is such that at a depth of 12 meters, they aggregate fish on a large scale and the casts become anchors for new coral growth, attracting local fish species and creating new ecosystems. The sculptures are frequented by rare angel sharks, schools of barracudas and sardines, octopus, marine sponges and the occasional butterfly ray.

The sculptures show people performing daily actions and each person has a different stance and expression on their face. It also has a group of hybrid characters (part cactus and human) called the Hybrid Garden, a mythological character reflecting the sea surface. The museum also includes the Raft of Lampedusa exhibition, a raft carrying 13 refugees toward an unknown future.

While the permanent installation is designed to last for hundreds of years, it will be an ever-changing exhibition as marine life changes and transforms the surfaces of the sculptures.

Side Underwater Museum

Located in the resort town of Side in Antalya's Manavgat district, Side Underwater Museum is Türkiye's first underwater museum. It is situated 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) off the coast at a depth between 12 and 20 meters.

The museum hosts 117 sculptures commissioned by Turkish sculptors around five unique themes in the depths of the Mediterranean. Among the themes are the War of Independence, the Battle of Gallipoli, world-famous Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi and the whirling dervishes, Poseidon the God of the Sea and the Temple of Apollo. There are also historical caravans of camels carrying grain and food for trade and a flower garden in memory of children who lost their lives at sea while fleeing the war in Syria.

Among the 117 sculptures, the giant Poseidon statue is the most eye-catching, standing at a height of 3.5 meters and weighing 50 tons. Visitors who want to visit the museum are required to first obtain a professional diving certificate.

The sculptures, which are made of materials suitable for underwater and are pH-neutral, also serve as a natural reef for sea creatures without disturbing the balance of nature.

Side Underwater Museum, which puts Manavgat and Antalya on the map in the world of diving enthusiasts and adds to the cultural tourism of a region already rich in terms of heritage, including the ruins of the ancient city of Side, one of the best-known classical sites in Türkiye, is visited by an average of 10,000 people every year.