Snorkeling under the waters of the Caribbean Sea, you may find yourself surrounded with scuptured images the size of actual human beings. These statues are not part of a sunken ship, mind you. Nor are they remains of actual people. These stues are part of the Underwater Museum that Cancun is famous for and was set up as part of its tourism drive.

It isn’t enough that Cancun’s waters already has lots of beautiful creatures, much to the delight of divers everywhere. But they still chose to do this, and have commissioned architects, designers and artists for the project, going with the idea that there really is a need to have something enticing for the discriminating tourists that come to the island each year.

Opened in 2009, the museum, which is actually called Museo Subacuático de Arte or MUSA is found between the waters of Cancun, Punta Nizuc and Isla Mujares. The largest underwater museum in the world, there are about 400+ sculptures here, and other artistic pieces you never can imagine was possible to display this way.

Part of the idea for this museum is also to incorporate environmental science. The sculptures are actually made of materials that help with coral life and restore the natural balance underwater.

Every year, this site gets almost a million visitors, who are curious enough to dive down its waters and see the wonder. It has undergone several instalations, featuring themes like Hombre en Llamas ,La Jardinera de la Esperanza and Coleccionista de los Sueños. But the most popular one is The Silent Evolution with its life-sized figures.

This is actually an ongoing project, with the most recent installation just completed in 2011.