Portal at Voi

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The Portal is a Forerunner artifact in Kenya, Africa on planet Earth. It is buried between town of Voi and the city of Mombasa. It was uncovered by the Covenant during the First and the Second Battle of Earth in late 2552.

Ancient History
According to the messages from a Forerunner known as the Librarian contained throughout the Terminals on the Ark, the portal on Earth was the last of numerous gateways constructed throughout the galaxy, and was buried shortly before the activation of the Halo rings. An ancient African elder named N'chala witnessed its construction by Strato-Sentinels.

Battle of Earth
Following the Prophet of Regret's retreat from Earth during the First Battle of Earth, a massive Covenant fleet led by Jiralhanae arrived. On the same day, they started the uncovering the Portal by Glassing. The process would not be complete until The Prophet of Truth arrived during the Second Battle of Earth.

The Prophet of Truth landed the Forerunner Dreadnought on the Forerunner structure, and an unusual electric storm started up above it. Before its activation, he traveled to the Superintendent's data center deep under New Mombasa, where Covenant forces had excavated a tunnel leading into the Portal's underground sections.

The UNSC military unit ONI Recon 111 reported to Commander Miranda Keyes that the "cruisers above the crater have stopped...they've found something". The UNSC attempted to attack the structure, falsely presumed to be the Ark by UNSC intelligence; but was unsuccessful due to heavy Covenant Loyalist anti-aircraft batteries. A small strike force in the city of Voi, consisting of John-117 and some Marines and factory workers neutralized an AA battery to clear a path for three Frigates and numerous Longswords. These then made several attacks on the Dreadnought with MAC Cannons and Air to Air Missiles, but with no effect. Truth then activated the Gateway, opening a large Slipspace rift above the artifact which led to the real Ark, which is revealed to be outside the Milky Way galaxy. Truth and the rest of the Loyalist fleet advance through the rift as the Separatist fleet, along with Thel 'Vadam, Miranda Keyes, and SPARTAN-117 pursue them to the Ark.

Appearances
The storm was first seen in the Halo 3 Announcement Trailer, when the camera shows the artifact being uncovered & activated. The storm lies directly over it, lightning bolts are seen flashing out of the clouds and the formation seems to have an eye, like a hurricane would. When the portal is activated, the beam travels up through this eye and disappears.

In the level Crow's Nest, when a player looks up at some of the computer monitors, you will see a map of the local area. The map will have a mass of clouds beginning to show a swirling motion around the area. When you enter the level Tsavo Highway, you can see a donut-shaped mass of clouds above the artifact that the Covenant are excavating. When you proceed to the level The Storm, the storm has intensified and grown. The clouds now bring rain to the area, and certain parts of the cloud glow as if cloud-to-cloud lightning is occurring. When Truth activates the Portal, the solid blue beam shoots up into the cloud formation's eye and opens the portal to the Ark.

After the portal is opened, and the level Floodgate begins, the remains of the clouds are seen broken up and swirling around the portal in the sky, having been disrupted by the opening of the portal itself.

Towards the end of the campaign in Halo 3: ODST, Veronica Dare says "They found what they were looking for." And it shows a view of the cities Voi, and New Mombasa, and in between is something similar to the Ark, where a good sized fleet of covenant ships are excavating the object.

Size
Some have estimated the Portal's diameter to be 25.515 kilometers using an overhead image and the size of a covenant Battlecruiser above the portal. However, this can hardly be considered a credible source as the covenant ship is relatively high above the portal, and therefore the proportions are distorted. In addition, the portal may be smaller in-game than its actual, canonical size, due to engine limitations.

A more probable diameter would be approximately 118,62 kilometers, as evidenced by the size of the Forerunner Dreadnought compared to the structure, as well as the fact it is clearly seen near the city of New Mombasa when the Covenant forces start uncovering it. As New Mombasa is some distance over 100 kilometers from Voi, this makes more sense than a diameter of mere 25.5 kilometers. Additionally, when it's seen from low orbit in the ending cutscene of Halo 3, it's clearly close to the African coastline instead of being deep into the mainland, which would inevitably be the case if the portal was only 25 kilometers in diameter. Such diameter would also mean the Forerunner Dreadnought would be radically smaller than it actually is.

Trivia

 * On Behind the Scenes on the Halo 2 Collectors Edition, there is actually a sketch of The Portal upon activation.
 * At a point in the level The Storm, a group of UNSC Marines are present around a radio. Intel comes over the communications channel and says,"...winds inside the storm have been clocked at over 200 kilometers per hour."
 * The Portal was originally both underground and submerged, lying under a massive human-made lake. By the events of Halo 3, the entire lake and the earth below had been vaporized by Covenant cruisers to unveil the Portal.
 * At the end of Halo 3 where Lord Hood is making his concluding Tribute speech about the Human-Covenant War and the Marines who died in the strife and war, you can see the Portal is closed when the Phantom comes to transfer the Arbiter to the Shadow of Intent.
 * When the frontal half of the Forward Unto Dawn came back to Earth through the portal, instead of exiting it above the structure where the Slipspace rift would be, it ended up exiting in Earth's orbit, due to the portal being closed. This indicates that from the Ark, one-way access through the portal was possible, even if the portal on Earth was closed.
 * The 14 monoliths that lift up after activation of the portal is another reference to the number 7 (7+7=14). The entire structure seems to be constructed of 7 identical parts, with 7|seven pairs of monoliths.
 * It has been further stated by Bungie that at one point, during story conception, the area that ended up being the Portal had originally been intended to be The Ark itself.
 * The location of the Ark Portal is marked on Google Earth, this location is misplaced, however, but a new location has been marked which is in the right place.
 * The monoliths bear a striking resemblance to the monoliths around the processing station from the film Aliens.