In 1009, a single order from a caliph in Cairo set off a chain of events that reshaped Jerusalem and much of the medieval world. This episode traces how the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre sparked the Crusades and brought Western armies to a city that had been, for most Europeans, little more than a legend. Walking through Crusader Jerusalem, we explore what remains of that short-lived Christian kingdom: the austere beauty of the Convent of St. Anne, the market streets built by monastic orders, vanished towers and fortifications, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre rebuilt by Crusader hands. Along the way, we encounter reused stones from Roman and Byzantine times, pilgrims’ graffiti carved in many languages, and the military orders that guarded the roads. The journey ends with two silent stone lions—survivors of an age of holy war—still watching over the city, reminders of a dramatic chapter that lasted less than a century, yet left an enduring mark on Jerusalem.
