Ibn Hawqal described it as a large city, while al-Muqaddasi wrote that Balad had well-built stone houses, good markets, and a congregational mosque at the center of town.

[2]: 99  Gerald Reitlinger suggested a possible identification of this mosque with "a fragment of wall built of fine squared granite blocks" on the western side of the mound at Eski Mosul.

[3]: 146 The 13th-century writer Yaqut al-Hamawi repeated some of al-Muqaddasi's observations and also described Balad as a crossroads between Mosul, Nisibin, and Sinjar.

The remains of two bridges, at Kisik Kuprü and Jisr Eski Mosul, mark the old routes.

Only the middle part of the bridge survives; the access ramps were removed at some point before the 20th century.

An inscription identifies the bridge as having been built in 1213-14 (611 AH) — during Yaqut's lifetime — by an architect named Muḥammad al-Ḥuzrī.

This bridge would have connected medieval Balad with Faysh Khabur and Jazīrat Ibn 'Umar (present-day Cizre).