A systematic study was done on the effect of preparation factors on the structural and catalytic properties of mesoporous nanocrystalline iron-based catalysts in high temperature water gas shift reaction. The catalysts were prepared by coprecipitation method, and the effect of the main preparation factors (pH, refluxing temperature, refluxing time, concentration of the precursors solution) was studied. The catalysts were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption (BET), Temperature programmed reduction (TPR), transmission and scanning electron microscopies (TEM, SEM) techniques. The results revealed that the preparation factors affected the textural and catalytic properties of the Fe-Cr-Cu catalyst. The results showed that the prepared catalyst with the highest activity showed higher specific surface area compared to commercial catalyst and consequently exhibited higher activity in high temperature water gas shift reaction. The TEM analysis showed a nanostructure for this sample with crystallite size less than 20 nm.