"What was Jerusalem like during the Crusades?" Topic

The question is in the title, what did Jerusalem look loke euring the Crusades?
Arab, old Byzantine buildings…?
And the other big Crusader cities? Acre, and so on?

I have no simple answer, but link would no doubt be relevant.

The first thing to keep in mind is that the Temple Mount is HUGE. The crusaders brought in many of the finest craftsmen from Europe and you might be surprised that they were prolific builders expanding the city and adding new walls.

They were utilitarian building with what was at hand. Quite often stone.

When you stand in front of the West Wall in Jerusalem, ther are three distict strat a to the wall. That of Solomon is at ground level and most ornate, above are the stone blocks of the Crusaders and the top levels are the Turks

I think you mean Herod, not Solomon.
There were three different Temple structures:

Solomon's, destroyed circa 586 BC (IIRC). None of it remains.
Zerubabbel's much less ornate replacement, which was dismantled for the construction of the last Temple. None of it remains, either.
Herod the Great's Temple, which existed at the time of Christ (still under construction), and was the last version, completed in 64 AD and destroyed 6 years later because of the Jewish Revolt.
The ground level blocks of the Wailing Wall are from Herod's Temple, though more specifically, the Temple Mount, as they were part of an artificial extension of the natural plateau, built by Herod to create a larger area for the Temple complex. Thus they are not really part of the Temple itself.
The stones above Herod's course are from the Muslim period, and were not built by Crusaders. But the Crusaders did build extensively all over the area, as did the Muslims. If you wander through the Old City, many of the shops selling souvenirs and other goods operate from stone arch structures built by Crusaders.
In any case, yes, Jerusalem is built on top of Jerusalem, which was built on top of Jerusalem, which was built on top of Jerusalem, and so on.
Also, as the Crusades cover several centuries, with constant building, destruction, and expansion going on, it would be better to define which period of the Crusades you are referring to.

Thanks everyone.
I was thinking of the last period of Christian occupation.

Nat Geo did a special on the First Crusade back in the early 1960's that had great set of illustrations with it, including the attack on Jerusalem. link
I don't know how accurate it is, but it was National Geographic. It was this article that really got me interested in this fascinating period of history.

Think Nat Geo missed the mark a little bit. Pretty sure the Al-Aqsa Mosque wasn't on the Temple Mount when Rome destroyed Jerusalem

I'm guessing it was hot and dusty?

That's obviously not the Roman attack in the illustration, LostWolf – looks like the First Crusade one to me, there's kite-shields in there.