[1] Jatagan Mala was situated some 5 km (3 mi) south of downtown Belgrade, east of the Sava river.

It originated on the location where the modern headquarters of the Medical Emergency Office (Hitna pomoć) is, below the "Višegradska" Maternity Hospital.

In time, it expanded occupying the entire slope between the Sarajevska Street on the west and Autokomanda on the east, stretching above the Kragujevac road, modern Franše d'Еpere section of the highway.

[1] It occupied roughly the area across the present neighborhoods of Mostar and Prokop, on the northern slopes of Topčidersko Brdo.

There was a major lack of dwellings and large number of internal migrants from the rest of Serbia poured into the capital searching for jobs.

The settlement grew constantly and soon became notorious for the prostitution, gambling, robbing, brawls, etc., and even the police hesitated to enforce the law and order in Jatagan Mala.

City administration constructed "Worker's colony", a barracks settlement in the Severni bulevar street, in the neighborhood of Zvezdara, to relocate settlers of Jatagan Mala, but the outbreak of the war put the project on hold.

[3] Still, the largest part was demolished in 1939–40, when 450 houses were razed to the ground, and the inhabitants were forcibly resettled to Marinkova Bara.

[7] It was a poor, neglected neighborhood inhabited by the Romani people and by today's standards it would probably be classified as an informal settlement.