A harbor (or harbour) 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. A natural harbor will be 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 slips 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.

During the D-Day operations of 1944, two artificial harbors (codenamed Mulberry) were built just off the invasion beaches.

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.

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), Vardø, and Prince Rupert, British Columbia (Canada).

Largest harbors

There is no dispute that Sydney Harbour is the world's largest natural harbor, but the identity of the second largest is a matter of controversy: several towns and cities across the world claim to possess the second largest. These places include:

• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom
• Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom
• Cork, Republic of Ireland

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

Other famous harbors:

• Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
• Upper New York Bay, New York/New Jersey, United States
• Hampton Roads, Virginia, United States

See also

• dock, dockyard,
• marina,
• quay,
• seaport, List of seaports
• transport,
• wharf