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A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term harbor is often used interchangeably with port, which is a man-made facility built for loading and unloading vessels and dropping off and picking up passengers. Harbors usually include one or more ports. Alexandria Port in Egypt, meanwhile, is an example of a port with two harbors.
Harbors may be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor can have deliberately constructed breakwaters, sea walls, or jetties or they can be constructed by dredging, which requires maintenance by further periodic dredging. An example of an artificial harbor is Long Beach Harbor, California, United States, which was an array of salt marshes and tidal flats too shallow for modern merchant ships before it was first dredged in the early 20th century. In contrast, a natural harbor is surrounded on several sides by land. Examples of natural harbors include Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, Halifax Harbour in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and Trincomalee Harbour in Sri Lanka.
Artificial harbors
Artificial harbors are frequently built for use as ports. The oldest artificial harbor known is the Ancient Egyptian site at Wadi al-Jarf, on the Red Sea coast, which is at least 4500 years old (ca. 2600–2550 BCE, reign of King Khufu). The largest artificially created harbor is Jebel Ali in Dubai. Other large and busy artificial harbors include:
- Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles, California, United States
- Port of Casablanca, Morocco
- Port of Koper, Slovenia
The Ancient Carthaginians constructed fortified, artificial harbors called cothons.
Natural harbors
A natural harbor is a landform where a section of a body of water is protected and deep enough to allow anchorage. Many such harbors are rias. Natural harbors have long been of great strategic naval and economic importance, and many great cities of the world are located on them. Having a protected harbor reduces or eliminates the need for breakwaters as it will result in calmer waves inside the harbor. Some examples are:
- Bali Strait, Indonesia
- Berehaven Harbour, Ireland
- Balikpapan Bay in East Kalimantan, Indonesia
- Mumbai in Maharashtra, India
- Boston Harbor in Massachusetts, United States
- Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Chittagong in Chittagong Division, Bangladesh
- Cork Harbour, Ireland
- Esquimalt Harbour in Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada
- Grand Harbour, Malta
- Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
- Gulf of Paria, Trinidad and Tobago
- Haifa Bay, in Haifa, Israel
- Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada
- Hamilton Harbour in Ontario, Canada
- Killybegs in County Donegal, Ireland
- Kingston Harbour, Jamaica
- Mahón harbour, in Menorca, Spain
- Marsamxett Harbour, Malta
- Milford Haven in Wales, United Kingdom
- New York Harbor in the United States
- Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa
- Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, United States
- Poole Harbour in England, United Kingdom
- Port Hercules, Monaco
- Sydney Harbour in New South Wales, Australia, technically a ria
- Port Stephens in Australia
- Tanjung Perak in Surabaya, Indonesia
- Port of Tobruk in Tobruk, Libya
- Presque Isle Bay in Pennsylvania, United States
- Prince William Sound in Alaska, United States
- Puget Sound in Washington state, United States
- Rías Altas and Rías Baixas in Galicia, Spain
- Roadstead of Brest in Brittany, France
- San Diego Bay in California, United States
- San Francisco Bay in California, United States
- Scapa Flow in Scotland, United Kingdom
- Sept-Îles in Côte-Nord, Quebec, Canada
- Shelburne in Nova Scotia, Canada
- Subic Bay in Zambales, Philippines
- Tallinn Bay in Tallinn, Estonia
- Tampa Bay in Florida, United States
- Trincomalee Harbour, Sri Lanka
- Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, India
- Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, China
- Visakhapatnam Harbour, India
- Vizhinjam in Trivandrum, India
- Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand
- Manukau Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand
- Wellington Harbour in Wellington, New Zealand
- Port Foster in Deception Island, Antarctica
Ice-free harbors
For harbors near the North and South poles, being ice-free is an important advantage, especially when it is year-round. Examples of these are:
- Hammerfest, Norway
- Liinakhamari, Russia
- Murmansk, Russia
- Nakhodka in Nakhodka Bay, Russia
- Pechenga, Russia
- Prince Rupert, Canada
- Valdez, United States
- Vardø, Norway
- Vostochny Port, Russia
The world's southernmost harbor, located at Antarctica's Winter Quarters Bay (77° 50′ South), is sometimes ice-free, depending on the summertime pack ice conditions.
Important harbors
Although the world's busiest port is a contested title, in 2017 the world's busiest harbor by cargo tonnage was the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan.
The following are large natural harbors:
- Algeciras, Spain
- Amsterdam, Port of Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Antwerp, Port of Antwerp, Belgium
- Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Maryland, United States
- Botwood, Newfoundland, Canada
- Bremerhaven, Germany
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Busan, South Korea
- Calabar, Nigeria
- Cartagena, Colombia
- Charleston, South Carolina, United States
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
- Cochin Port, Kochi, Kerala, India
- Port of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh
- Dnipro, Ukraine
- Durban, South Africa
- Falmouth, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom
- Freetown Harbour, Sierra Leone
- Golden Horn, Istanbul, Turkey
- Gothenburg, Sweden
- Gwangyang, South Korea
- Hai Phong Port, Haiphong, Vietnam
- Haifa, Israel
- Hakodate, Japan
- Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Hamburg Harbour, Germany
- Hampton Roads, Norfolk, Virginia, United States
- Havana Harbor
- Helsinki, Finland
- Hong Kong, China
- Incheon, South Korea
- İzmir, Turkey
- Port of Jakarta (Tanjung Priok), Jakarta, Indonesia
- Kaliningrad, Russia
- Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
- Kerch and Port Krym to Port Kavkaz, Russia
- Kyiv, Ukraine
- Kingston, Jamaica
- Kobe Harbour, Kobe, Japan
- Port of Kolkata, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
- Port of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
- Lushunkou, Dalian, China
- Mahón, Menorca, Spain
- Manila Bay, Philippines
- Maputo, Mozambique
- Milford Haven, Wales, United Kingdom
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Montevideo, Uruguay
- Mumbai, India
- Nassau, Bahamas
- New York Harbor, United States
- Mykolaiv, Ukraine
- Novorossiysk and Anapa, Russia
- Odesa, Ukraine
- Osaka, Japan
- Oslofjord and Oslo, Norway
- Pärnu, Estonia
- Plymouth Sound, Devon, England, United Kingdom
- Port of Portland, Casco Bay, Maine, United States
- Port of Sevastopol, Sevastopol, Crimea
- Port Phillip, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Provincetown Harbor, Provincetown, Massachusetts, United States
- Rio de Janeiro, Guanabara Bay, Brazil
- Rostov-on-Don, Russia
- Rotterdam, Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Salvador, All Saint's Bay, Brazil
- San Antonio, Chile
- San Diego Bay, San Diego, California, United States
- Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Sochi and Adlersky City District, Russia
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Tallinn, Estonia
- Tanger-Med, Tangier, Morocco
- Tanjung Perak, Surabaya, Indonesia
- Tauranga Harbour, Tauranga, New Zealand
- Tokyo Bay, Tokyo, Japan
- Trincomalee, Sri Lanka
- Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, India
- Port of Tyne, Tyne & Wear, United Kingdom
- Ulsan, South Korea
- Victoria & Esquimalt Harbours, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- Vizhinjam in Trivandrum, India
- Vladivostok, Russia
- Vyborg, Russia
- Willemstad, Curaçao
- Wellington Harbour, New Zealand
- Yevpatoria, Ukraine
- Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine
See also
- Boyd's Automatic tide signalling apparatus
- Dock
- Ice pier
- Inland harbor
- List of marinas
- List of deepest natural harbours
- List of seaports
- Mandracchio
- Marina
- Mulberry harbour
- Quay
- Roadstead
- Seaport
- Shipyard
- Wharf
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