Mole (architecture)

The oldest known mole is at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor complex on the Red Sea, constructed c. 2500 BCE.

[6] The Heptastadion is also believed to have served as an aqueduct while Pharos was inhabited,[7] and geophysical research indicates that it was part of the road network of the ancient city.

The cost was about £340,000, and the improved harbour was to be 600 yd (550 m) long, 30 ft (9 m) deep at low tide, and capable of keeping out the roughest of seas.

The King gave secret orders to abandon the city, level the fortifications, destroy the harbour, and evacuate the troops.

[15] None of the four Bay Area moles survive today, although the causeway portions of each were incorporated into the filling in of large tracts of marshland for harbor and industrial development.

[17] The two concrete moles protecting the outer harbour at Dunkirk played a significant part in the evacuation of British and French troops during World War II in May to June 1940.

Naval captain William Tennant had been placed ashore to take charge of the navy shore parties and organise the evacuation.

[18] James Campbell Clouston, pier master on the east mole, organised and regulated the flow of men on that site.

They were commissioned following the sinking of HMS Royal Oak in 1939 by German U-boat U-47 which had penetrated the existing defences of sunken blockships and anti-submarine nets.