It was discovered on December 18, 1905 by Edward R. Ayrton, excavating on behalf of Theodore M. Davis; Siptah's mummy had been found earlier, cached in KV35.

[1] The investigation began by systematically running trenches towards the rock face at regular intervals,[4] encountering the top of a flight of steps on 18 December 1905.

After a day of excavation the top of the lintel was revealed, bearing the cartouches of Siptah, who had, until that point, been thought to share the tomb of Twosret.

The jambs bear the king's names and titles while the lintel depicts Isis and Nephthys adoring the sun in the form of Khnum-Kheper-Re.

Knowing that Siptah's mummy was among those found cached in KV35, and that the tomb was likely thoroughly looted in antiquity with any surviving objects presumed to be crushed under the weight of the collapsed ceiling as evidenced by what he identified as a single fragment of an alabaster sarcophagus, Ayrton decided to abandon the excavation.

Burton began by fully clearing the vestibule and adjoining lower corridor which proved difficult as the flood-washed debris and mud had set hard over time.

The antechamber was cleared by 23 February 1912, and work began on the next corridor where the "rubbish was so tightly packed and tough that it was scarcely possible to distinguish it from the living rock.

Upon finding it still contained the pink granite sarcophagus of the king, the temporary pillar was removed, and the most dangerous parts of the ceiling pulled down to stabilize the roof.

The lid features the Osiride figure of the king flanked by Isis and Nephthys; the box is decorated with funerary texts,[3] and an alternating band of kheker-frieze and seated jackals, with underworld deities below.

Also recovered from the burial chamber were many limestone jar lids decorated with a design of lotuses, along with numerous fragments of alabaster, presumably from the canopic box and other funerary furniture.

[3] Among these fragments have been identified parts of two canopic chests, an alabaster sarcophagus, and two anthropoid coffins; unexpectedly some pieces bear the name of Merenptah.

The modern wooden floor was removed from the burial chamber to permit a full clearance of the remaining debris; small fragments missing from Siptah's sarcophagus were located in the course of this work.

Immediately inside the entrance, Maat is depicted on either side seated on a basket supported by the plants of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Going up to complete the work in this place by the gang: (list of thirty-five workmen)[13]Jaroslav Černý dates the inscription to the late Twentieth through early Twenty-first Dynasties.

[17] Reeves suggests that, given the ostraca's association with the earlier entrance dug into the lower fill layer, it refers to the dismantling of the burial and removal of the king's body for reburial elsewhere.