In 2021, Cyprus submerged 93 sculptures to create an underwater forest; concrete trees rise from the seabed at different depths

There is a forest off the coast of a quiet beach town in Cyprus that no one will ever walk through on foot. It lies eight to ten meters underwater and forms a concrete forest of trees, human figures, and silent faces looking up toward the light. This is the Museum of Underwater Sculpture Ayia Napa, MUSAN, which opened in August 2021 with 93 sculptures, some weighing up to 13 tons, dotted across the seafloor near Pernera beach. Artificial reefs, of which MUSAN is an unusual, art-driven example, have been used for marine restoration and conservation purposes for decades, according to a 2022 systematic review in PLOS ONE by researchers Emily Higgins, Anna Metaxas and Robert Scheibling, who examined artificial reef deployments across the globe. MUSAN is that effort made into art you can swim through.

A million-dollar forest with no leaves

Jason deCaires Taylor, a British sculptor, created MUSAN for about $1.1 million using materials that are inert and pH-neutral so that they do not contaminate the water. The artwork has been lowered using cranes and installed at various depths; some of the art pieces are installed right below the surface, while others sit on the sandy bottom amidst natural rock formations. Visitors can swim between the giant tree structures and pass figures of children playing hide-and-seek underwater. It is not the first time Jason deCaires Taylor has created such a project. He created the first underwater sculpture park in 2006 in Grenada, followed by the much larger project near Cancún, Mexico, with over 500 submerged sculptures. His aim remains the same: to transform a barren sandy seabed into one that supports marine life.

Why the Mediterranean needed help

The Mediterranean is one of the world's most biodiverse regions, but it is also warming faster than most oceans. A 2025 study titled ‘Climate change risks on key open marine and coastal Mediterranean ecosystems’ in Nature's Scientific Reports focused primarily on climate-driven threats, warming, acidification, and sea level rise, finding that nearly all Mediterranean ecosystems face high risk under current climate scenarios. The study also noted that non-climatic pressures like overfishing and pollution add further strain, though these weren't its central focus. The authors describe an ecosystem being squeezed from multiple directions at once, not just warming. This is the background against which MUSAN was built. Cyprus had already identified six marine protected areas for artificial reefs, and MUSAN was officially recognized as one of these. It was never meant to replace natural reefs, but to give marine life additional surfaces to colonize.

Does sculpture actually help sea life, or is it just a nice idea?

It is a relevant question, and the science provides a reasonably positive answer. In 2020, a meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Marine Science led by marine ecologist Avery Paxton compared fish communities on artificial reefs with natural reefs in dozens of studies across ocean basins and reef types, including rocky and coral reefs. Artificial reefs can support fish density, biomass, and diversity similar to natural reefs, but the results are not consistent across all materials, sizes, and locations, the research concluded. In short, the concrete trees are more than decoration; they can serve as a real habitat.

The review, which spanned artificial reef studies worldwide rather than one habitat type, found that increasing the habitat area and fish density are the two objectives accomplished the most frequently. Nevertheless, the authors noted that the observation period for the majority of projects is too short to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention adequately. This conclusion is relevant to MUSAN as well. The museum is only a few years old, and underwater change happens slowly.

What's actually growing down there now

The Cyprus Mail recently reported that marine life is beginning to establish itself on the sculptures, with algae growing on their surfaces and oysters forming around the upper sections. Fish like saddled seabreams, parrotfish, and white seabreams have been seen moving about in the area. The developments at MUSAN took place slowly compared to other art projects by Taylor, though they are evident nonetheless.

A forest with a message

Taylor often says he calls his projects museums for a reason: museums preserve things we deem valuable, and he wants people to start seeing the ocean that way, too. Each dive at MUSAN also carries a symbolic dimension. The concrete trees become an image of coral forests and kelp beds that disappear elsewhere under the growing temperatures. Children made of stone become an image of the generation that will inherit the ocean. MUSAN can look, at a glance, like a striking backdrop for social media. But underneath that is a genuine experiment testing whether artificial structures can support marine life while broader climate pressures continue. The Cyprus Mail reported that in the few years since the sculptures were lowered in 2021, algae, oysters, and fish have begun establishing themselves on the site, early but real signs of colonization worth continuing to track.