t archaeologist of note to visit the site was John Lloyd Stephens in 1841. In a departure from what has become the norm, for Stephens Chichen Itza was merely a side trip on his long epic journey to over 40 Mayan ruins. Indeed, ôStephens had looked forward to Chichenàbut somehow his account fails to register the same enthusiasm that marks the description of other sitesö (Brunhouse, 93). The next archaeologist to do major work on the site was Augustus Le Plongeon in 1874. Le PlongeonÆs trip to Chichen Itza was in itself noteworthy, due to the high levels of conflict between the Mexican authorities and the local population. Nevertheless he persevered, and with his wife spent over three months at Chichen Itza. During this tenure Plongeon and his wife drew up plans of all the major edifices, copied 20 sheets of mural drawings, and took over 500 photographs (148). Le PlongeonÆs major discovery at Chichen Itza was a statue he named Chacmool, or the Tiger King. Le Plongeon removed the statue from the site in an ill-conceived attempt to transport the enormous and weighty statue to Philadelphia to exhibit it at the World Fair. Unfortunately, Le Plongeon was waylaid by the Mexican government, which claimed ownership over the statue and eventually moved it to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, where it remains today (137-139). Le PlongeonÆs main legacy, Chacmool aside, was being the first archaeologist to make an extended exploration of Chichen Itza at a time when the local conditions were highly unfavorable.
The most important of the early archaeologists to visit Chichen Itza was Edward A. Thompson. Thompson became the first archaeologist to actually live at Chichen, using money contributed by his close personal friend Alison V. Armour to purchase almost 100 square miles of land around the site, including several square miles of ruins of the ancient Chichen that had never carefully been explored. Although ama...