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

See also

• Boyd's Automatic tide signalling apparatus

• Dock

• Dockyard

• Ice pier

• Marina, List of Marinas

• Port

• Roadstead

• Quay

• Seaport, List of seaports

• Wharf

• Inland harbor