PHOTO BY HUCK BEARD

For more than 50 years, the aquarium at the Pittsburgh Zoo — first dubbed AquaZoo then renamed the PPG Aquarium before a naming-rights deal expired in 2022 — has been inviting guests under the sea.

In many ways, that’s no metaphor. In several places, floor-to-ceiling tanks can create the illusion that the visitor is somehow standing safely beneath the waves as creatures both familiar and exotic pass by. Nowhere else does the zoo offer such immersive encounters — and, with its plethora of sea life, there may not be another part of the charming Pittsburgh institution that houses more wonders per square foot.

PHOTO BY HUCK BEARD

There are ocean icons aplenty — sharks, jellyfish, sea turtles, rays, fish large and small. If you can name an animal associated with oceans, rivers or streams, you’ll probably find it (or at least one of its close cousins) somewhere in this two-story building.

Much of the joy of the Aquarium, though, is not in the familiar creatures but in the unusual discoveries: the vivid freshwater tiger ray, a species only identified in 2011; the whimsical unicorn tang; the uncanny arapaima, with a face like Freddy Krueger; the spotted garden eel, which sticks straight out of the sand like a plant; the cabezon, with its coloration that recalls nothing so much as a marble countertop; and hundreds of others.

Multiple areas draw guests in, including the towering, two-story tank where sharks glide back and forth and the human-height, glass-walled tanks containing river creatures ranging from friendly game fish to piranhas. But the most entrancing may be the eerie saltwater gallery area, containing strange creatures from deep below the waves. Dim lighting both allows for the luminescent details of some of these animals to show and adds to the atmosphere.

And of course, at the back of the hallway, the landmark penguin habitat, where gentoo and macaroni penguins pose, dive and waddle. It’s a space every child in Pittsburgh knows by heart — and one every adult should return to for a bit of whimsy and wonder.

Insider’s Tip: Don’t skip the beautiful Water’s Edge area just outside of the Aquarium. Constructed to look like a coastal fishing village, it’s a charming and often overlooked area, home to polar bears, sea otters and more.

While You’re Here: Zoo visitors with long memories will recall bear dens with grizzlies and Kodiak bears on the uphill pathway leading to the Aquarium. Those exhibits are no more, but in place of the first bear den … is the Beer Den. You can grab a brew and snacks in the space that once held some large mammals.