Port of Leixões, Portuguese Porto De Leixões, principal port serving the city of Porto and northern Portugal. It is an artificial harbour on the Atlantic Ocean, within the town of Matosinhos, 5.5 miles (9 km) northwest of central Porto. Porto is prevented by a sandbar from having a deepwater harbour of its own. The Leixões harbour is formed by two curved breakwaters that are 5,240 feet (1,597 m) and 3,756 feet (1,145 m) long. The port’s original docking facilities were completed in 1890 and were subsequently expanded in the early 1930s and early 1970s. While Port of Leixões long has been associated with the export of port wine, Porto’s most famous product, at the end of the 20th century, the port’s facilities were modernized to provide additional large-scale container-park gantries and new equipment, including heavy cranes, capable of handling Panamax container ships (i.e., ships narrow enough to fit through the Panama Canal).
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Portugal, country lying along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. Once continental Europe’s greatest power, Portugal shares commonalities—geographic and cultural—with the countries of both northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Its cold, rocky northern coast and mountainous interior are sparsely settled,…
PortoPorto, city and port, northern Portugal. The city lies along the Douro River, 2 miles (3 km) from the river’s mouth on the Atlantic Ocean and 175 miles (280 km) north of Lisbon. World-famous for its port wine, Porto is Portugal’s second largest city and is the commercial and industrial centre for…