Posted on July 27, 2026
By Corporativo
World’s largest breakwater extends 14.5 kilometers over the Gulf, protects the Grand Port of Al Faw, and achieves an official Guinness record.
In the far south of Iraq, a man-made barrier extends 14.523 kilometers in a marine environment and transforms the scale of modern coastal engineering. The structure is part of the Grand Port of Al Faw in Basra province and has been officially recognized by the Guinness World Records as the longest breakwater in the world.
The record was registered on April 2, 2020 and attributed to Daewoo Engineering & Construction, the General Company for Ports of Iraq, known by the acronym GCPI, and the Italian company TECHNITAL. According to Guinness, the structure measures 14.523 kilometers, equivalent to 9.02 miles, and is located at the Grand Port of Al Faw.
The dimension is impressive because a breakwater is not just a strip of concrete or rock laid over the water. It is a heavy infrastructure designed to withstand waves, currents, sediments, sea spray, seabed settlement, and the operational pressure of a large port.
The project was born to protect a deep-water port
The Grand Port of Al Faw was conceived as a deep-water port complex in a strategic area of southern Iraq, next to the Kawr Abdallah channel, near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab. This position places the venture in a significant maritime circulation zone for cargo entering and leaving through the Gulf.
TECHNITAL reports that the port was designed to handle about 36 million tons of containerized cargo, equivalent to 4 million TEUs, in addition to 22 million tons of dry bulk by 2028. In a later stage, the planned capacity rises to 7.5 million TEUs and 33 million tons of dry bulk by 2038. These are project projections, not volumes already handled.
For a port of this scale to function, it is not enough to build docks, cranes, and container yards. It is necessary to create a protected maritime zone capable of reducing wave force and allowing ships to dock, maneuver, and unload safely.
How a breakwater protects ships, docks, and terminals
A breakwater functions as a coastal defense barrier. Its role is to reduce the energy of waves before they reach port areas, access channels, terminals, and docking zones.
In structures of this type, the core is usually made of granular materials and rocks of different sizes. The outer layers receive larger blocks, heavy stones, or special concrete pieces, designed to withstand the continuous impact of water.
