The settlement of Balta is located 10 km south of Vladikavkaz at the entrance to the Balta gorge, on the left bank of the Terek river.
According to ancient Georgian and Armenian written sources, this area was inhabited by the Alans as early as the I century AD.
The exact origin of the name “Balta” is unknown. It is assumed that it may have derived from the Ossetian word bal (cherry), or from the Turkic balta (forest, grove).
Since the 1860s, “right on the riverbank in a two-story white building, there was a postal station”, the first encountered when traveling from Vladikavkaz.
To protect this section of the Georgian Military Road, there was a redoubt in Balta, equipped with two mortars and a company of soldiers.