They form a rectangular rampart about 1,640 meters long and approximately 11 meters high, with 15 towers and 10 gates.
Construction began in the 13th century at the initiative of King Louis IX (Saint Louis), who founded a royal port city here for the Crusades.
The Tour de Constance was built first (around 1240-1249); the rest of the walls were completed after his death under Philip III and Philip IV, around 1300.
It is one of the best-preserved examples of 13th-century military architecture in Europe.
Later, the towers served, among other things, as a prison for Huguenots.
They have been protected as historical monuments since 1903.
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