Crew or equipment visible: In some scenes involving horses, modern orange cones can be seen on the ground directing the riders on the path past the camera to follow. This has been corrected for the Director's Cut DVD.
Factual errors: When the Muslims are praying near Jerusalem they are praying towards the setting sun, west, not towards Mecca which is to the south south east.
Continuity: During the battle for Jerusalem, the crescent moon and the star nearby, change positions during a short period of time. First, the crescent is horizontal, with the star a short distance above it. In the next scene, the crescent is on an angle, and the star is where the unlit part of the moon would obscure it.
Factual errors: A few times during the movie, the Muslims are shown praying while the prayer call is being delivered. The prayer call precedes the prayer.
Anachronisms: During the movie, flags from Castilla y Leon kingdom are shown several times. At that time Castilla and Leon were separate kingdoms. They became one in 1230.
Continuity: The size of the hole made by the sword in the sand when Imad falls after the fight for the horse changes; from large and uneven to even
Revealing mistakes: When the messenger of Saladin is stabbed in throat by Guy de Lusignan. The blood that is squirted outward sprays from the left side of the neck where he was not stabbed.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Guy stabs Saladin's messenger in the throat with a small dagger. When the messenger falls, Guy is holding a bloody sword, rather than his dagger. This is corrected in the Director's cut, where Guy proceeds to behead the messenger with his sword.
Continuity: At 2:08:09 surrender of Jerusalem, the scar to left and below Bloom's eye disappears.
Anachronisms: In the Director's Cut, Sibylla tells her son, soon to be Baldwin V, in his geography lesson, that the King of England is Richard, the son of King Henry. Richard I did not succeed his father until 1189, three years after the death of Baldwin V.
Factual errors: Sibylla claims that she was married to Guy de Lusignan when she was 15 years old. In fact, she was 20 or 21 when she married him in 1180. She had been about 17 when she married her first husband, William of Montferrat, in 1176.
Anachronisms: The so-called 'Templar' who attacks Balian before the battle of Hattin (in 1187) wears a white surcoat bearing a black cross: the arms of the Order of St Mary of the Germans (aka the Teutonic Knights). This order was not founded until 1190 at the very earliest.
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Balian is building the timber water channel he places the lower level duct on top of the higher one. This should be the opposite way round as in its current state any water running down would run under the lower duct and consequently be lost.
Continuity: During the second day of the siege, Balian watches several Saracen soldiers put their flag upon one of the towers; Balian is seen taking a weapon from a nearby archer, if you look closely that weapon is a war hammer. In the next shot, Balian is seen slashing a Saracen with an arrow.
Continuity: At the beginning of the film, when the party is ambushed, a rider charges towards Godfrey. He is wearing a conical helmet, but in the next shot, after Godfrey has dispatched him, his helmet is flat.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In the directors cut version, Balian is in Jerusalem, praying where Christ was crucified - you see him burying his dead wife's gold necklace (cross). Later in the movie, you see him pulling out the ring that Sibylla gave him and kissing it - not the cross of his late wife.
Factual errors: Throughout the battle scenes, the crescent moon and star are used as symbols of Islam. However, these were not adopted until the mid 15th century and the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks. Most of the Arab armies would have carried black, green or white flags.
Anachronisms: During the sea voyage and at other times, Balian is costumed in a top cinched with a row of buttons, almost a century before functional buttons appeared in his part of the world. Nonfunctional decorative buttons go back far in history, but functional buttons first appeared in the 1200's in Germany, spreading to other parts of Europe in the later 1200's through mid-1300's. Using tie strings or some manner cinching laces (or better, just a loose pullover top) would have been more period-appropriate.
Errors in geography: In the movie Jerusalem is shown to be in a flat, sandy desert. Jerusalem is actually set on top of a mountain (Mount Zion) with massive valleys filled with trees, and other greenery surrounding the city walls.
Crew or equipment visible: In front of Reynald's castle, when Saladin's army comes, a yellow plastic pole that marks a stopping point for the foot soldiers is clearly visible. (This has been corrected for the Director's Cut DVD.)
Factual errors: The effects of trebuchets have been extremely overdone. They neither reach as far as the film implies (certainly not with that kind of angle) nor does the impact of the ammunition cause the ground to tremble as if it were modern artillery. A hurled stone on a massive city wall may cause a dent and merely a thump upon impact.
Factual errors: During the 12th century the Knights Templar used the Maltese cross on their habit. It wasn't until a century or so later they were forced to change to the Roman cross. Unfortunately, this is a mistake that Hollywood has always made.
Anachronisms: Two times, at the beginning and at the end of the movie, there is mention of Italian language spoken in Italy. There was no Italy nor standard Italian language at that time.
Factual errors: During the siege of Jerusalem, the Muslims fire flaming arrows at the city. No siege force would have used flaming arrows against a solid non-wood structure as they would have been completely useless.
Continuity: In the beginning of the movie when Balian is pounding on his piece he is shown clearly quenching the end of the piece after pounding on it, clearly showing only the middle of the piece is still hot enough to work, however the next shot shows him once again working on the end which is hot once more while the middle is not.
Continuity: When Balien catches up with his father on their way to Jerulsalem and they are attacked by Godfrey's brothers forces. Odo, one of Godfrey's men is struck by an arrow through the neck, but still keeps fighting. Soon after he is struck by a second arrow in the chest and falls to his knees. As the camera angle reverses, he suddenly has two arrows in the chest instead of one.
Continuity: In the Kerak battle sequence, the lighting changes back and forth drastically between cuts, from harsh midday light, to soft morning or sunset lighting.
Continuity: Balian's arm was slashed by a sword perpendicular to his arm, however, the injury shown later has the gash going length-wise down his wrist.
Continuity: Balian's hair keeps changing between shots when he and Tiberias talk on the battlefield.
Continuity: Balian slaps a boy, making him a knight with a nosebleed, but in the next shot, the blood is gone.