[3] As in neighbouring Fener, Balat's back streets are lined with small stone two and three-storey terraced houses and a few grander mansions.

The Golden Horn ferries also stop here, connecting Balat to Üsküdar, Karaköy, Kasımpaşa, Fener, Ayvansaray, Hasköy, Sütlüce and Eyüp.

Balat first became home to a large Jewish population in the late 15th century, when Sultan Bayezid II offered citizenship to Jews and Muslims fleeing the Inquisition in Spain and Africa, and the 1492 Alhambra Decree.

[8] Its proximity to St. George's Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in neighbouring Fener also meant that there was a large Greek Orthodox (Rûm) population.

[11] In 1985, Balat was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the Historic Areas of Istanbul, and in the late 1990s and early 2000s was the subject of a number of controversial renovation and revitalisation projects.

[16] Originally founded in the 15th century to serve a congregation of Jews from Ochrid, the Ahrida Synagogue contains a beautiful wooden bema (pulpit) and is historically important because it was where Sabbetai Tsvi announced his breakaway beliefs in 1666.

The Church of Hagios Georgios Metochi is enclosed in a large compound off Vodina Caddesi and is usually open on the St George's Day.

In his travel book Dervish, the journalist Tim Kelsey described the joint Muslim and Christian gathering that used to take place here on one day of the year when sheep and cockerels were sacrificed in hope of a miracle that would heal a disabled member of the community, an event that no longer occurs.