After the departure of the Israelites from the land of Egypt, that country was reduced to the lowest depth of misery. The King, with all his chariots, horsemen, and footmen were all overwhelmed and destroyed; there was no firstborn of man (or beast) to mourn the loss of their kindred. The land was desolate, and the Storehouses of the King stood out in their grandeur to remind the survivors of their ingratitude to the relatives of the man who built them, to preserve the Egyptians during the seven years of the grievous famine that afflicted the land of Egypt. They must have avoided the sight of these monuments, thereby to forget the misery and desolation they had brought on themselves by their cruel treatment of the Hebrews. The Egyptian priests knew what these buildings were, for they were the historians of their country; but when Herodotus visited Egypt and made minute inquiries regarding the Pyramids, they gave him a confused account, telling him, however, that for one hundred and six years the Egyptians suffered all kinds of calamities, and that for this length of time the temples were closed and never opened. From the hatred they bore them, the Egyptians were not willing to mention the names of their kings, but called the large Pyramids after Philition (Zaphnath-paaneah, Psothom Phanech), a shepherd who at that time kept his cattle in those parts.[17] Philition is a corruption of the other two names given to Joseph by Pharaoh; while the shepherds were the brothers of Joseph, and Goshen—Gizeh of our time—the region where they dwelt, as commanded by the King. The Greeks could make nothing out of the information gathered by Herodotus.