Harbor

Short description: Sheltered body of water where ships may shelter

New York Harbor and the Hudson River in the foreground; the East River in the background.

Capri harbor, Italy seen from Anacapri

Koyilandy Harbour, Kerala, India

A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. 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 is an example of a harbor with two ports.

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.^[1] 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.^[2] Other large and busy artificial harbors include:

Port of Houston, Texas , United States
Port of Long Beach, California, United States
Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California, United States
Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands
Port of Savannah, Georgia, United States

The Ancient Carthaginians constructed fortified, artificial harbors called cothons.

Natural harbors

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
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
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
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 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
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
Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand
Manukau Harbour in Auckland, 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.^[3]