Halo -
A luminous ring or disk of light surrounding the heads or bodies of sacred figures, such as saints, in religious paintings; a nimbus.
Similar to this, a block halo surrounds the macro and does not allow placement of cells within the area like sree205 said.
If standard cells are placed very close to the macro, the pins are not accessible by the router. Halo will move along with its macro when the macro placement changes.