A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where , , and can be Mooring. The term harbor is often used interchangeably with port, which is a man-made facility built for loading and unloading Watercraft 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, , 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.
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:
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Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles, California, United States
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Port of Casablanca, Morocco
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Port of Koper, Slovenia
The Ancient Carthaginians constructed fortified, artificial harbors called .
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
. 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:
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Bali Strait, Indonesia
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Berehaven Harbour, Ireland
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Balikpapan Bay in East Kalimantan, Indonesia
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Mumbai in Maharashtra, India
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Boston Harbor in Massachusetts, United States
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Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Chittagong in Chittagong Division, Bangladesh
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Cork Harbour
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Esquimalt Harbour in Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada
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Grand Harbour, Malta
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Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
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Gulf of Paria, Trinidad and Tobago
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Haifa Bay, in Haifa, Israel
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Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada
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Hamilton Harbour in Ontario, Canada
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Killybegs in County Donegal, Ireland
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Kingston Harbour, Jamaica
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Mahón harbour, in Menorca, Spain
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Marsamxett Harbour, Malta
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Milford Haven in Wales, United Kingdom
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New York Harbor in the United States
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Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa
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Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, United States
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Poole Harbour in England, United Kingdom
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Port Hercules, Monaco
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Port Jackson in New South Wales, Australia, technically a ria
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Port Stephens in Australia
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Tanjung Perak in Surabaya, Indonesia
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Port of Tobruk in Tobruk, Libya
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Presque Isle Bay in Pennsylvania, United States
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Prince William Sound in Alaska, United States
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Puget Sound in Washington state, United States
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Rías Altas and Rías Baixas in Galicia, Spain
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Roadstead of Brest in Brittany, France
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San Diego Bay in California, United States
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San Francisco Bay in California, United States
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Scapa Flow in Scotland, United Kingdom
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Sept-Îles in Côte-Nord, Quebec, Canada
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Shelburne in Nova Scotia, Canada
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Subic Bay in Zambales, Philippines
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Tallinn Bay in Tallinn, Estonia
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Tampa Bay in Florida, United States
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Trincomalee Harbour, Sri Lanka
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Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, India
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Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, China
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Visakhapatnam Harbour, India
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Vizhinjam in Trivandrum, India
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Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand
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Manukau Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand
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Wellington Harbour in Wellington, New Zealand
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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:
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.[ U.S. Polar Programs National Science Foundation FY2000.]
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:
See also
Notes
External links
