Harbor

A harbor or harbour (see spelling differences), or haven, is a place where ships may shelter from the weather or are stored. Harbors can be man-made or natural. A man-made harbor will have sea walls or breakwaters and may require dredging. A natural harbor is surrounded on most sides by land.

Harbors and ports are often confused. A port is a man-made coastal or riverine facility where boats and ships can load and unload. It may consist of quays, wharfs, jetties, piers and slipways with cranes or ramps. A port may have magazine buildings or warehouses for storage of goods and a transport system, such as railway, road transport or pipeline transport facilities for relaying goods inland.

Artificial harbors

Artificial harbors are frequently built for use as ports. The largest artificially created harbor is in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Natural harbors

A natural harbor is a landform where a part of a body of water is protected and deep enough to furnish anchorage. Natural harbors have long been of great strategic and economic importance. Many of the great cities of the world are located on a natural harbor. Having a protected harbor reduces or eliminates the use of breakwaters as it will result in calmer waves inside the harbor.

Ice-free harbors

For harbors near the poles, being ice-free is an important advantage, ideally all-year round. Examples are Murmansk (Russia), Petsamo (Russia, formerly Finland), Hammerfest, Vardø, and Prince Rupert (Canada). The southern-most harbor, at Antarctica's Winter Quarters Bay (77°50′S), presents a potentially ice-free harbor, dependent on summer pack ice conditions.

Tidal harbor

A tidal harbor is a type of harbor that can only be entered or exited at certain tidal levels.

Important harbors

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: Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Maryland, United States
Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, United States
Bridgetown, Barbados
Cartagena, Colombia
Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Cork Harbour, Ireland
Duluth, Minnesota, United States
Durban, South Africa
Falmouth, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom
Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India
Freetown Harbour, Sierra Leone
Golden Horn, Istanbul, Turkey
Gothenburg, Sweden
Grand Harbour, Malta
Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada
Hamburg Harbour, Germany
Hampton Roads, Virginia, United States
Kingston, Jamaica
Kobe Harbour, Kobe, Japan
Kochi, India
Mahon, Minorca, Spain
Manila Bay, Philippines
Milford Haven, Wales, United Kingdom
Montevideo, Uruguay
Mumbai, India
Nassau, Bahamas
New York Harbor, United States
Oslofjord, Norway
Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Plymouth Sound, Devon, England, United Kingdom
Poole Harbour, Dorset, England, United Kingdom
Port Jackson, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia
Rio de Janeiro, Guanabara Bay, Brazil
Salvador, Brazil
San Diego Bay, San Diego, California, United States
San Francisco Bay, California, United States
Tokyo Bay, Tokyo, Japan
Trincomalee, Sri Lanka
Vancouver, Canada
Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Wellington Harbour, New Zealand
Willemstad, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles

Other notable harbors include: Belém, Brazil
Kahului, Hawaii, United States
Kaipara Harbour, New Zealand
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Keelung, Taiwan
Kilindini Harbour, Kenya
Keppel Harbour, Singapore
Manukau Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand
New Haven Harbor, Connecticut, United States
Port of Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium
Port of Bruges-Zeebrugge, Flanders, Belgium
Port of Genoa, Italy
Portland Harbour, Dorset, England, United Kingdom
Trondheim, Norway
Port of Gdańsk, Poland
Port of Szczecin, Poland

Translation

The word "Harbor" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Portuguese, Simple English.

Translation(s) in other languages: Arabic: هاربور, Bosnian: Luka, Bulgarian: Пристанище, Czech: Přístav, Danish: Havn, German: Hafen, Greek: Λιμένας, Spanish: Puerto, Esperanto: Haveno, Persian: لنگرگاه, Scottish Gaelic: Acarsaid, Icelandic: Náttúruleg höfn, Japanese: 泊地, Hebrew: מעגן, Swahili: Bandari asilia, Malay: Pelabuhan, Dutch: Haven, Norwegian (Bokmål): Havn, Norwegian (Nynorsk): Naturleg hamn, Low Saxon: Haven, Polish: Przystań (żeglarstwo), Russian: Гавань, Slovak: Prístav, Swedish: Hamn, Tamil: துறைமுகம், Turkish: Liman.