The peristasis (Ancient Greek: περίστασις) was a four-sided porch or hallway of columns surrounding the cella (naos) in an ancient Greek peripteral temple. This allowed priests to pass round the cella (along a pteron) in cultic processions.
If such a hall of columns surrounds a patio or garden, it is called a peristyle rather than a peristasis.
___Pteron_q.jpg)
In Classical architecture, a pteron (Ancient Greek: πτερον, 'wing') is an external colonnade around a building, especially an Ancient Greek temple. The pteroma or peristasis is the passage between the columns and the wall in a temple, the peristyle that in an inward-facing courtyard or garden.
In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (/ˈpɛrɪˌstaɪl/; Ancient Greek: περίστυλον, romanized: perístulon) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns (a colonnade) surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön (τετράστῳον/τετράστοον, tetrástōion/tetrástoon, 'four arcades') is a rarely used archaic term for this feature. The peristyle in a Greek temple is a peristasis (περίστασις, perístasis). In the Christian ecclesiastical architecture that developed from the Roman basilica, a courtyard peristyle and its garden came to be known as a cloister.
In Classical architecture, a peripteros (Ancient Greek: περίπτερος; see peripterous) is a type of ancient Greek or Roman temple surrounded by a portico with columns. It is surrounded by a colonnade (pteron) on all four sides of the cella (naos), creating a four-sided arcade, or peristyle (peristasis). By extension, it also means simply the perimeter of a building (typically a classical temple), when that perimeter is made up of columns. The term is frequently used of buildings in the Doric order.