The steep angle of the scarp was particularly effective during the siege, since it caused enemy fire to ricochet. The thickness of the earthworks forming both curtains and bastions was equally important, for it rendered the walls capable of absorbing projectiles, thus blocking their destructive course towards the city.
The curtain wall between the Pantocrator and St. Andrew Bastions, 2004 (photograph: Vassilis Kozonakis)
The eastern side of the new walls from the Vittouri Bastion, 1900 - 1905 (G. Gerola, Vikelaia Municipal Library, Heraklion)
