Harbor - WikiHQ

thumb|[[Port of Jebel Ali, which has the largest artificial harbor in the world.]]

alt=A panoramic view of Carry-le-Rouet harbour in France, showing rows of docked boats and yachts surrounded by seaside buildings and palm-lined streets under a clear sky.|thumb|Carry Le Rouet harbor in France.

thumb|[[Port of Montevideo|Montevideo's natural harbor is clearly seen from above.]]

thumb|[[Capri harbor, Italy seen from Anacapri]]

thumb|[[Koyilandy Harbour, Kerala, India]]

A harbor (American English) or harbour (Commonwealth English) is a sheltered part of a body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored.

The term harbor is often used interchangeably with port, however port refers specifically to the facilities for loading and unloading ships, as opposed to just a sheltered area of water. For example, Alexandria Port in Egypt is a port with two harbors.

Harbors may be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor can have 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 previously 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 naturally-occurring land. Examples of natural harbors include Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong, 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

thumb|[[Port of Tanjung Perak|Tanjung Perak is a famous example of a natural harbor in Indonesia. The harbor location in Madura Strait.]]

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
Mumbai in Maharashtra, India
Boston Harbor in Massachusetts, United States
Chittagong in Chittagong Division, Bangladesh
Cork Harbour, Ireland
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
Haifa Bay, in Haifa, Israel
Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, 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
Port of Messina in Sicily, Italy
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
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

thumb|The harbor of [[Piraeus in Greece]]

thumb|Port Jackson, Sydney

thumb|The harbor of [[Gorey, Jersey falls dry at low tide.]]

thumb|[[Punta del Este's harbor – nicknamed the Monte Carlo of South America]]

thumb|The harbor in [[Aberystwyth, painted ]]

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:

thumb|[[Port of Szczecin, Poland]]

thumb|upright=1.1|[[Valparaíso, Chile]]

Notes

External links

Harbor Maintenance Finance and Funding Congressional Research Service

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