ABSTRACT
A prime function of seaports is to act as ambassadors of their hinterland to the outside world. They differ fundamentally therefore from the classical central place of W. Christaller, who himself recognized this basic difference at the outset of his famous monograph when he distinguished three major types of settlement: (i) central places whose chief function is to serve a surrounding region; (ii) areally bound places – ‘Those settlements the inhabitants of which live on their agricultural activities, which are conditioned by the land area surrounding them…’ (1933, transl. by C.W. Baskin, 1966, 16); and, most significant for this discussion (iii) point-bound ones - ‘those settlements the inhabitants of which make their living from resources found at specific locations … especially harbours’ (idem). Christaller immediately went on to say that very often harbours simultaneously become central settlements, but this seems merely like an attempt to sweep them under the carpet of central place theory. This can be done until one is confronted with the outside stimulus for the origin of the port and the outside connection for its continued function.
