Originally posted by Mpemba Effect
No the portage tree is held in /usr/portage and when you update portage it just updates all the ebullds in /usr/portage. When you install something via emerge the source files are held in /usr/portage/distfiles. During the install process the source files will be unpacked, patched etc in /var/tmp/portage.
Ah. What happens after emerging? Are the archives deleted or do they stick around?