When they traveled to Chicen Itza in 1875, they were accompanied by a military escort. When they arrived at the site, local Maya men were hired to clear the vegetation and help with excavations. The Le Plongeons were some of the first people to photograph and study Chicen Itza. Their photographic work was methodical and systematic, and they took hundreds of 3-D photos. They documented entire Maya buildings, such as the "Governor's Palace" at Uxmal, in overlapping photos by placing the camera on a tall tripod or scaffold to correct for perspective and then processed the plates in the unlit rooms of Maya buildings. In addition to entire facades of buildings, they also photographed small artifacts, and architectural details such as bas-reliefs, Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions, and sculptures. They excavated buildings, drew maps and copied murals, and made molds of bas-reliefs. At Chichen Itza they excavated a structure known as the Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars and unearthed a large statue or altar figurine. They coined the name "Chaacmol" (later "Chac Mool" or chacmool) for it. Although their derivation of the name is known now to have had no association with figures of this type, the name has remained in general use among later archaeologists. This statue would later be used as a demonstration of Toltec influences at the site, with other examples found at the Toltec capital, Tula. They also documented their excavation of the Platform of Venus with photos as well as plan and cross-section drawings. From 1873 to 1884, the Le Plongeons visited and photographed other Maya sites such as Izamal, Isla Mujeres, Cozumel, Cancún, and Ake, and traveled to Belize (British Honduras). During this time they made a few trips back to New York to attempt to sell bas-relief molds to museums, give lectures, and solicit financial backing for their studies. Theories By the 1880s, while most Mayanists accepted that the Maya civilization postdated Ancient Egypt, Le Plongeon stood by his theories. He cited his years of fieldwork and studies of archival sources, and challenged those he considered "armchair" archaeologists to debate the issues. However, as evidence mounted against cultural diffusion, Le Plongeon became marginalized and his theories fell further outside the growing mainstream of Maya archaeology. Le Plongeon insisted that the symbols of Freemasonry could be traced to the ancient Maya and that the ancient knowledge had come to ancient Egypt from the ancient Maya