World Ports Around the Oceans

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-26T19:54:17+00:00

Marseille - City of freedom, beloved freedom Marseille is the fifth largest port in Europe, after Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and Amsterdam. The port has a very old history. People lived in the Cosquer cave near Marseille around 27,000 years before the era. They left behind images of human hands and animals. Around 600 BCE, Greeks from Phocaea, a Greek city now located on the west coast of Turkey, founded a colony called Massalia. The sea inlet here, with its surrounding hills and mountains, wh…

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-26T19:51:50+00:00

Alexandria - Bride of the Mediterranean Alexandria is Egypt's largest port. The port is located in the northwest of the Nile Delta and is connected to the Nile by a canal. The harbor was founded in 331 BC by the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great - long before that there was a small fishing village, Rhakotis. Alexander's teacher was the Greek philosopher Aristotle; he was too a great admirer of Homer. Alexander reached the Egyptian coast at the island of Pharos, about which Homer had alre…

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-25T20:27:11+00:00

Piraeus – Port of antiquity Piraeus, the port city of Athens, is the largest port in Greece. It is becoming a strategically very important port in Europe. Since the port became partly, and later largely, owned by the Chinese container company Cosco in 2002, much has been invested in terminals, infrastructure and tourism. People settled on the Piraeus peninsula around 1300 BC. The construction of the city and the port of Piraeus, around 500 BC, were mainly the work of the statesman and maritime …

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-25T20:25:09+00:00

Valparaíso - Beloved of the ocean Valparaíso on the Pacific is the second port in Chile, after San Antonio. It is a renowned and extraordinary port city, because of its history, its colorful architecture and its location against the mountains. The harbor is a half round bay, with a container harbor, fishing boats, navy ships, cruise ships, bulk ships and a white sailing ship with four masts. Chile is a peculiar country: it is more than four thousand kilometers long and about two hundred kilomet…

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-25T20:24:57+00:00

Singapore - The Lion City Singapore is the third largest port in the world, which is special because the densely populated island with about 5 million inhabitants and miniscule size is a small city-state, without natural resources. But it is located on the Straits of Malacca, one of the busiest and most strategic straits in the world, through which a lot of shipping between Europe, Southeast Asia and China passes. About 130,000 ships enter every year. In addition to many container ships, bulk s…

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-25T20:24:52+00:00

Shanghai - Rising from the sea Shanghai, on the densely populated east coast of China, is the largest port in the world. Seven of the ten largest international ports are located on this Chinese east coast. Some 24 million people live officially in Shanghai, and another 6 million unofficially. In the eighth century it was a small fishing village on the Huangpu River. At the end of the thirteenth century it became a walled trading town. China has had coastal shipping for 4,000 years, rock drawing…

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-25T20:24:10+00:00

Los Angeles - City of illusions The Port of Los Angeles and that of adjacent Long Beach form together the largest port in the United States. They are among the top 20 container ports in the world. Native hunters, gatherers and fishermen lived in nutrient-rich and pleasant California from about 13,000 BC. The Tongva Indians were located in the area where now the port of Los Angeles is. Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was the first European to anchor here in 1542; on the cliffs he sa…

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-25T20:24:04+00:00

Hong Kong - Fragrant harbor Hong Kong is a set of islands and coastal areas. The town's name means fragrant harbor, after the sandalwood forests on the island. About seven million inhabitants live there. Hong Kong is one of the largest ports in the world. Because of the port's limited space and the competition with ports on the Chinese mainland, the port is dropping on the world ranking of ports. Hong Kong, like the Chinese ports of Guangzhou, Macau and Shenzhen, is located on the delta of the …

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-25T20:23:59+00:00

Hamburg – Gate to the world Hamburg is the third largest port in Europe, after Rotterdam and Antwerp. And just as Rotterdam and Antwerp have traditionally been river ports, so is Hamburg. But Hamburg is situated more than a hundred kilometers from the North Sea, on the tidal river Elbe. The Elbe rises in the Giant Mountains in the Czech Republic and is 1165 kilometers long. The disadvantage of Hamburg is that seagoing ships have to sail a long way over a winding and silting river before they re…

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-25T20:23:53+00:00

Genoa – La Superba Like an amphitheater, Genoa lies against steep mountains, there is hardly a flat strip of land on the coast. The stage that the Genoese have looked out on for millennia is the sea. Agriculture, cattle-breeding, forestry were not possible, there was no space for it. Thus, they went out to sea, becoming the skillful and adventurous sailors they were known for. And notorious: Genoa was a pirate's nest for centuries, and a center of the Mediterranean slave trade. Genoa is the mos…

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-25T20:23:44+00:00

Cape Town - Tavern of the Oceans The harbour of Cape Town is South Africa's second port after Durban. The old and beautiful port city attracts many tourists and also foreign companies involved in industry, finance, trade and shipping. After seafarers from the Middle East had passed the southern tip of Africa centuries earlier, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to round the cape at the end of the fifteenth century. Bartholomeus Diaz called it

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-25T20:23:08+00:00

World Ports Around the Oceans The History and Future of Seaports, Energy Transition, and Globalization The Lifeblood of Global Trade Shipping, ports, and trade are essential to humanity. Oceans, seas, and rivers cover more than two-thirds of the Earth's surface. Since ancient times, people have carried their goods across the water—first in rafts, canoes, and sailboats, and now aboard container ships, bulk carriers, and tankers.

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jannis (jannis@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-24T20:46:44+00:00