KV56

The tomb consists of a vertical shaft measuring 8 by 5.6 feet (2.4 m × 1.7 m) cut 15 feet (4.6 m) into the bedrock. The shaft opens to the north into a single unfinished room, the north wall of which has a stepped shape. The room is 25.2 feet (7.7 m) wide; it is longest on the west side, at 19.05 feet (5.81 m), and shortest along the eastern wall, at 10.4 feet (3.2 m).

The location and layout of the tomb indicate that it was originally constructed in the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The shaft is of a similar depth to that of WV24 but of larger dimensions, and the single chamber would have been the largest of any comparable pit tomb in the Valley had it been completed.

The tomb was discovered on 5 January 1908 by Edward Ayrton, who was excavating on behalf of Theodore Davis in the side valley leading towards the tomb of Amenhotep II. At a depth of 13 feet (4.0 m) below the then ground level, the mouth of a vertical shaft was encountered. The shaft was cut through debris for 5 feet (1.5 m), stabilised on three sides by walls of stacked limestone chips, and then descended a further 15 feet (4.6 m) into the bedrock. Both the shaft and the chamber were filled with flood debris, in which Ayrton noted two layers: a top section of flood debris and a lower level of fine mud.