The task was entrusted to Michael Kokkinis, a young engineer from the island of Chios who had studied in Napoleonic France. He organized his labour force in four 100-men units with one supervisor for every ten workers. There was a dedicated area in the harbour for unloading timber and sand, while no foreigner was allowed to visit the construction site without a permit. The polygonal wall was almost 2,000 meters long; the base was broad, while the upper section had a 30-degree inclination to absorb the force of enemy shells. There were 23 bastions named after Greek and foreign freedom fighters, as well as 48 guns and an exterior ditch (eight meters wide, two meters deep, partially filled with seawater). It was not much of a wall (people called it “The Fence”), but it would have to suffice.