National Museum of Underwater Archaeology — Attraction in Cartagena

This is a large museum, on the port next to the marina aptly enough. We parked in the underground car park on the same street and it was a few minutes walk to the museum. Entrance was possibly €6 each but I can't quite remember. The museum is modern and well laid out, starting with an explanation of what marine archeology actually is, what it covers and what it tries to achieve. It also showed how the tools and resources have changed as technology moves on but also the dangers as the treasure hunters become equally sophisticated. The later section is a chronological display of items recovered and an explanation of how maritime trade worked and what the trade routes were. This started with a Phonecian vessel and continued to the nineteenth century. There is also a good little shop and I think there's a cafe on the upper floor but we didn't go there. We spent over an hour inside and it was a...

This was an amazing couple of hours, very modern building and a national museum. It's free on Sundays. You go down a ramp to enter (perhaps going down into the sea?) Very wheel-chair user and mobility impairment accessible. In Spanish as well as the English language. There are videos of modern day finds of submerged cities, shipwrecks and conservation in-situ, on the sea bed. Also exhibits of shipwrecks and the items found, the oldest 2 are replicas of Phoecian ships found in Mazarron, Murcia. Another one sunk in the Americas1802 by Britain resulted in Spain winning a 21st century American court case proving that the ship sunk was their property rather than the American salvage hunting conpany who found and plundered it. (It had Spanish coins, silver, gold, lead and other artefacts that could be sold). I'd recommend this museum if you have the time to...

This museum is located immediately to the right as you leave the cruise port. Walk between the two large buildings and go down a slope that resembles the entrance to a parking garage. Entrance is free for seniors if you have proof age (65+).

The museum focuses on the archaeological history of the development of shipping on the Mediterranean Sea from Phoenician time to today. It details how shipwrecks should be studied when discovered so as to preserve them and their treasures rather than plundered. A well designed layout leads you past interactive and static displays showing how wrecks are discovered, surveyed and protected. Many recovered artifacts are on display as well as cross-sections of ships of different periods and how they constructed and loaded.

A not to be missed museum if you have an interest in...