MUSA (Underwater Museum of Art)

The figures are fixed to the sand across more than 420 square metres of what was barren seabed, at 8 to 9 m. The Silent Evolution, the flagship installation with more than 400 statues, is a mass of figures: families, a man at a desk, businessmen with their heads in the sand. There is no line to follow, so the dive is a slow circuit from group to group, and the sand bottom makes it easy to hold position for a closer look.

Up close the figures are furred with growth, and it is mostly algae. A 2014-15 study of the sculptures, a preprint that has not been peer reviewed, found them dominated by two algae and a sponge, with corals and hydroids under 1 percent of the macrofauna counted.1 Fish gather around the structures: French grunts are the park's most common fish, green turtles its most common reptile, and operators list rays and turtles for the museum and Manchones reef pairing, a two-tank morning with little boat time between the two.

Divers book "Cancún's underwater museum" and are taken to Isla Mujeres; day trips run from Isla Mujeres and from Cancún. The gallery open to scuba, Salón Manchones, lies in the island's water at 8 m. Salón Nizuc, the second gallery, sits on the Cancún side near Punta Nizuc at 4 m and is open to snorkellers only.

The sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor puts the museum at over 500 permanent life-size sculptures,2 and the park itself counts 529 sculptures in 125 artificial habitats placed up to 2015, at two sites.3 Other artists contributed too: the Mexican artists Karen Salinas Martínez and Rodrigo Quiñones Reyes are credited with works, and Elier Amado Gil with "Understanding" and "Blessings". Over 90 fishermen and women were cast as models for the sculptures.

Divers' accounts are mixed. Some call it worth doing once, and others describe the figures as full of seaweed. It suits a first dive after certification or a relaxed second dive beside Manchones reef.

The park's management programme dates the museum to 2008, as part of a policy of redirecting tourists away from the most visited reef units to alternative sites.3 The natural reef at Manchones Grande had lost 37 percent of its coral colonies to Hurricane Wilma in 2005.3

The work was commissioned by the national marine park and the Cancún Nautical Association, and Taylor installed sculptures from 2009.2

Growth on the figures breaks easily, and the park lists accidental coral breakage by inexperienced divers as a cause of damage to its reefs.3 Settle your trim and neutral buoyancy over the open sand before you approach the figures, and hover as you move between them. Fire coral occurs across the park, so every surface stays untouched.

Scuba groups need a guide, with a maximum of 6 divers per guide by day and 4 at night.3