Europe’s first underwater museum opens in Spain

A SPECTACULAR underwater museum has opened just off the coast of Lanzarote. The Museo Atlantico is the first of its kind in Europe and has been painstakingly put together by British eco-artist Jason deCaires Taylor. 

Situated 14 metres underwater and featuring dozens of humanoid sculptures based on real people, the installation has an eerie ambiance and is only viewable to snorkellers and scuba divers. 

The park opened on January 10, almost a year after the finishing touches were announced. Located in Coloradas Bay on the south coast of Lanzarote, it contains more than 300 sculptures and a special habitat for native marine life. 

There is an underwater garden, cactus-human hybrid sculptures, and groups of people using their phones or taking selfies. Taylor, who spent more than two years on the project, conceives it as a statement on climate change, the human condition, and our relationship with nature. 

Taylor is also the artist behind an underwater sculpture park in the Caribbean, hailed as one of the greatest wonders of the world by National Geographic.