A harbor or harbour (see spelling differences), or haven, is a body of water where ships, boats and barges seek shelter from stormy weather, or are stored for future use. The term "harbor", referring primarily to a sheltered body of water, 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. Ports are often located in harbors.
Harbors can be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor can have deliberately constructed breakwaters, sea walls, or jettys, 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 prominences of land. Examples of natural harbors include Sydney Harbour, Australia and Trincomalee Harbour in Sri Lanka.
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 BC, reign of King Khufu). The largest artificially created harbor is Jebel Ali in Dubai. Other large and busy artificial harbors include:
Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands;
Port of Houston, Texas, United States;
Port of Savannah, Georgia, United States;
Port of Long Beach, California, United States;
Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California, United States.
The Ancient Carthaginians constructed fortified, artificial harbors called cothons.
A natural harbor is a landform where a part of a body of water is protected and deep enough to furnish 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:
New York Harbor in the United States;
Boston Harbor in Massachusetts, United States
Poole Harbour in England, United Kingdom;
Kingston Harbour in Jamaica;
Grand Harbour in Malta;
Marsamxett Harbour in Malta;
Subic Bay in Zambales, the Philippines;
Scapa Flow in Scotland, United Kingdom;
Sydney Harbour in Australia; technically a ria
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, United States;
Trincomalee Harbour in Sri Lanka;
San Francisco Bay in California, United States;
Visakhapatnam Harbour in India;
Killybegs in County Donegal, Ireland;
Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada;
Hamilton Harbour in Ontario, Canada;
Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada;
Cork Harbour, Ireland;
Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand;
Port of Tobruk in Tobruk, Libya;
Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong.
For harbors near the North and South Poles, being ice-free is an important advantage, especially when it is year-round. Examples of these include:
Murmansk, Russia;
Pechenga, Russia;
Liinakhamari, Russia;
Hammerfest, Norway;
Vardø, Norway;
Vostochny Port;
Nakhodka in Nakhodka Bay, Russia;
Prince Rupert Harbour, Canada.
The world's southmost harbor, located at Antarctica's Winter Quarters Bay (77° 50′ South), is potentially ice-free, depending on the summertime pack ice conditions.
Although the world's busiest port is a hotly contested title, in 2006 the world's busiest harbor by cargo tonnage was the Port of Shanghai.
The following are large natural harbors:
Algeciras, Spain
Amsterdam, Port of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Antwerp, Port of Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium
Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Maryland, United States
Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, United States
Bremerhaven, Germany
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Burrard Inlet, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Busan, Korea
Cartagena, Colombia
Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Port of Chittagong, Chittagong City, Bangladesh
Cork Harbour, Ireland
Dnipro (city), Ukraine
Duluth–Superior harbor, Duluth, Minnesota, United States
Durban, South Africa
Falmouth, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom
Freetown Harbour, Sierra Leone
Golden Horn, Istanbul, Turkey
Gothenburg, Sweden
Grand Harbour, Malta
Gwangyang, Korea
Hai Phong Port, Haiphong, Vietnam
Hakodate, Japan
Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada
Hamburg Harbour, Germany
Hampton Roads, Norfolk, Virginia, United States
Havana Harbor
Helsinki, Finland
Incheon, Korea
Izmir, Turkey
Port of Jakarta (Tanjung Priok), Jakarta, Indonesia
Kaliningrad, Russia
Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Kerch and Port Krym to Port Kavkaz, Russia
Kiev, Ukraine
Kingston, Jamaica
Kobe Harbour, Kobe, Japan
Lisbon, Portugal
Lushunkou, Dalian, China
Mahón, Minorca, Spain
Manila Bay, Philippines
Maputo, Mozambique
Milford Haven, Wales, United Kingdom
Montevideo, Uruguay
Mumbai, India
Nassau, Bahamas
New York Harbor, United States
Nikolaev, Ukraine
Novorossiysk and Anapa, Russia
Odessa, Ukraine
Osaka, Japan
Oslofjord and Oslo, Norway
Parnu, Estonia
Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Piraeus, Attiki, Greece
Plymouth Sound, Devon, England, United Kingdom
Poole Harbour, Dorset, England, United Kingdom
Port Jackson, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Port of Portland, Casco Bay, Maine, United States
Port of Sevastopol, Sevastopol, Russia
Port Phillip, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Provincetown Harbor, Provincetown, Massachusetts, United States
Punta del Este, Uruguay
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
San Francisco Bay, California, United States
Sankt Petersburg, Russia
Sochi and Adlersky City District, Russia
Stockholm, Sweden
Subic Bay, Zambales, Philippines
Tallinn, Estonia
Tanger-Med, Tangier, Morocco
Tauranga Harbour, Tauranga, New Zealand
Tokyo Bay, Tokyo, Japan
Trincomalee, Sri Lanka
Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, India
Port of Tyne, Tyne & Wear, United Kingdom
Ulsan, Korea
Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Victoria Harbour (British Columbia) & Esquimalt Harbour, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Visakhapatnam Port, Andhra Pradesh, India
Vizhinjam, Trivandrum, India
Vladivostok, Russia
Vyborg, Russia
Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand
Willemstad, Curaçao
Wellington Harbour, New Zealand
Yevpatoria, Russia
Zaporozhe, Ukraine
Other notable harbors include:
Belém, Brazil
Port of Bruges-Zeebrugge, Flanders, Belgium
Port of Genoa, Italy
Port of Gdańsk, Poland
Kahului, Hawaii, United States
Kaipara Harbour, New Zealand
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Keelung, Taiwan
Keppel Harbour, Singapore
Kilindini Harbour, Kenya
Manukau Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand
New Haven Harbor, Connecticut, United States
Portland Harbour, Dorset, England, United Kingdom
Rades, Tunisia
Rio Grande, Brazil
San Juan, Puerto Rico, United States
Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom
Sydney Harbour, Australia
Port of Szczecin, Poland
Trondheim, Norway
Valparaiso, Chile
