The fortifications of the town of Rhodes are shaped like a defensive crescent around the old town and consist mostly in a modern fortification composed of a huge wall made of an embankment encased in stone, equipped with scarp, bastions, moat, counterscarp and glacis. The portion of fortifications facing the harbour is instead composed of a crenellated wall. On the moles towers and defensive forts are found. They were built by the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John by enhancing the existing Byzantine walls starting from 1309, the year in which they took possession of the island after a three-year struggle.[1][2] Like most of the defensive walls they were built with a technique[3] called rubble masonry which allows for a great mass capable of withstanding the gunshots with smooth external stone faces to avoid climbing.