But, in its mid 19th-century heyday, it was a terminus of the caravan route from Lake Tanganyika, a major export point for slaves and ivory, and one of the largest ports between the city of Bagamoyo and Mombasa, Kenya.

BBC: Tanzania without the crowds

It is also one of the largest container ports in the country, but is not dominated by its docks, and the town has its attractive areas with wide, tree-lined roads leading to the centre.

BBC: NEWS | VOTE 2001 | RESULTS & CONSTITUENCIES | Great Grimsby

Earlier public share offerings in the country's largest dredger of ports, Dredging Corporation, and its largest gas transmission company, the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), were also oversubscribed.

BBC: NEWS | Business | India's $2bn share offer a hit

Assuming the deal goes through, it will create the world's largest container port operator, overtaking Hong Kong's Hutchison Ports .

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Port Hedland had closed three main iron ore ports in the Pilbara region, the world's largest source of iron ore, as the cyclone approached.

BBC: Australia hit by Tropical Cyclone Rusty

The compass was also invented in China, and records exist of how a great fleet was sent under the command of Admiral Zheng He in the early 15th century to show the Chinese imperial flag in the ports of the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, a fleet said to be the largest seen in the world up to that time.

CNN: Building On A Golden Age