What is…
Solomon's Porch
also known as: Solomon's Colonnade or Solomon's Portico
a colonnade, portico, cloister (covered walk), on the eastern side of the Temple's outer court in Jerusalem
Hebrew: אוּלָם —transliteration: ulam (meaning a porch, a hall)
Greek: στοᾷ —transliteration: stoa (meaning a porch, a portico or colonnade, a hall of columns)
“a covered colonnade where people can stand or walk protected from the weather and the heat of the sun” —Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Then David gave to his son Solomon the plan of the porch [ulam] of the temple, its buildings, its storehouses, its upper rooms, its inner rooms and the room for the mercy seat; and the plan of all that he had in mind, for the courts of the house of the Lord, and for all the surrounding rooms, for the storehouses of the house of God and for the storehouses of the dedicated things —1 Chronicles 28:11-12 NASB
The ancient historian Titus Flavius Josephus mentions this structure in his description of Herod's temple.
These cloisters belonged to the outer court, and were situated in a deep valley, and had walls that reached 400 cubits [in length], and were built of square and very white stones, the length of each of which stones was 20 cubits, and their height 6 cubits. This was the work of King Solomon, who first of all built the entire temple. —Josephus Flavius Ant. xx.9.7
If Jospehus is correct about the porch having survived since the time of Solomon, then this part of the Temple was spared in the destruction by the Babylonians in c. 565 B.C.
Jesus Christ walked and taught on this porch during the Feast of the Dedication.
…Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade [stoa] of Solomon. —John 10:23 ESV
There was a miraculous healing of a lame man at this location:
While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. —Acts 3:11 ESV
Many miracles were performed here through the Apostles.
Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. —Acts 5:12 ESV
Although there are various theories, the exact location of this now destroyed structure has not yet been discovered with certainty by archaeologists, the site having been vigorously destroyed with all of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans.
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