page_title: Mole (architecture)
section_title: English Tangier
hierarchical_section_title: Mole (architecture) / English Tangier
caption_attribution_description: English: The port of Tangier, 1680. England gained Tangier from the marriage treaty with Portugal in 1661. Under constant threat from the "Moors", and after trying in vain to sell the place to Portugal or France, England abandoned expensive Tangier in 1683. Contemporary engraving, London, National Army Museum.
context_page_description: A mole is a massive structure, usually of stone, used as a pier, breakwater, or a causeway between places separated by water. The word comes from Middle French mole, ultimately from Latin mōlēs, meaning a large mass, especially of rock; it has the same root as molecule and mole, the chemical unit of measurement. A mole may have a wooden structure built on top of it that resembles a wooden pier. The defining feature of a mole, however, is that water cannot freely flow underneath it, unlike a true pier. The oldest known mole is at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor complex on the Red Sea.
context_section_description: When England acquired the north African city of Tangier as English Tangier in 1661, the English began building a mole to improve the harbour. The mole was planned to be 1,436 feet (438 m) long and cost £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. Work began on the mole in August 1663 and continued for some years under a succession of Governors. With an improved harbour the town would have played the same role that Gibraltar later played in British naval strategy.
  However, Parliament expressed concern about the cost of maintaining the Tangier garrison, and by 1680 King Charles II had threatened to give up Tangier unless the supplies were voted for its sea defences. A crippling blockade by the Jaysh al-Rifi finally forced the English to withdraw from Tangier in 1683. The King gave secret orders to abandon the city, level the fortifications, destroy the harbour, and evacuate the troops. Samuel Pepys was present at the evacuation and wrote an account of it.
caption: Map of Tangier under English rule, 1680
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