[4] This coast has been a retreat from the city since Byzantine and Ottoman times, and right up until the 1970s was a rural area occupied with summer homes for wealthy residents.

Being on the suburban railway line, Maltepe was a favorite spot for day-trippers or weekenders to visit the beach and many summer houses were built there.

Badly damaged after the İzmit earthquake 1999, most high-rise apartments were left in need of repair and fortification, and although most buildings in the district have been subject to urban renewal to comply with the new earthquake regulations, many buildings remain standing with structural damage cracks.

North of the highway is Başıbüyük, a working-class neighborhood, which from afar appears as a wooded hill where the Süreyyapaşa Hospital (formerly used as a sanatorium) and also a large cemetery are located.

It serves as the primary meeting point for Maltepe as it spans a police station, an art gallery, a private hospital, aswell as the Republic Mosque.

The gallery hosts tiled mosaics of various sights of importance to Islam and carved wood frames.

Public transportation in Maltepe is generally provided by Metro, Marmaray, buses and minibuses.

Maltepe is located in the southwestern part of the Kocaeli Peninsula, on the Marmara Sea coast of Istanbul.

[11] In 2024, the CHP held the municipality with Esin Köymen elected as the first female mayor to the district.