An underwater museum planned in Turkey's southern city

ANTALYA – Doğan News Agency

Antalya will be home a similar underwater museum in Mexico’s Cancun. DHA photo

The Shipping Trade Chamber (DTO) Antalya Branch is planning to establish in Antalya a similar museum to the world famous underwater museum in the Caribbean Sea. 

The project aims to make the city a diving center and to improve underwater sports. Talks have started with the West Mediterranean Development Agency (BAKA). The museum is set to be established in the Side district. 

DTO Antalya Branch Chairman İnanç Kendiroğlu said the museum would provide the international promotion of the underwater tourism potential in Antalya, and the city would step into a new age in diving tourism. 

Kendiroğlu, who spoke with BAKA Secretary General Tuncay Engin, said the agency was “positive” about the project, and the tasks would begin for the establishment of the underground museum. 

The world’s first underwater museum in Mexico’s Cancun has drawn attention with the placement of 400 human sculptures to form coral reef. The museum aims to demonstrate the interaction between art and environmental science and forms a complex reef structure for marine life to colonize, inhabit and increase biomass on a grand scale. Sculptures are made from specialized materials used to promote coral life.