When the Knight Hospitallers conquered the island, the town was still wealthy but in decline. Rhodes underwent an economical growth thanks to the richness that the knights brought in from the Holy Land and to the inheritance of the Templars' assets given to the Hospitallers after the Templar Order was suppressed in 1312 by decree of the king of France Philip IV. The richness of the island attracted the Ottomans from the nearby coast (Turkey is just 18 km away and can be easily seen from Rhodes). The knights started continuous works on the fortifications, both to include the new villages in the South of the historical Byzantine town and to update the fortification to the new military defensive techniques after the artillery started to be used currently as a siege means.