A 35-meter-long sloped tunnel – 9.6 meters across at the widest point – leads down to the tomb pit 15 meters from ground level. The pit is 740 square meters in size and trape-zoid in shape, 18 meters long with widths of 19.5 meters at the narrowest and 22 meters at the widest. The floor was paved with stone slabs, and the four side chambers were originally sealed by stone gates. The fragments of gate ruins about the site show that they were exquisitely carved and painted.

Analysis of tomb contents was thorough. Three skulls were found in the tomb, one man and two women. Bone analysis shows that the man was in his 60s, which tallies with the historical record of Cao Cao's age at the time of his death. One of the women was in her 20s and the other in her 50s. The 59 inscribed stone tablets unearthed come in two shapes – a rectangle with a curved top, and a hexagon. Rectangular tablets are carved with words such as "short spear once used by King Wu of Wei" and "big halberd once used by King Wu of Wei." The hexagonal ones bear the names and number of burial objects for daily use, such as "yellow silk robe" and "desk." The majority of the characters were penned in the bold and square calligraphic type called "han-li," or "official script of the Han Dynasty." According to Zhao Chao, an expert on ancient scripts from the Institute of Archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the use and construction of certain words in the inscriptions were typical of the Han-Wei period.

Zhao Chao was a member of the expert team of experienced archeologists, philologists and anthropologists from the CASS Institute of Archeology that the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau invited to help identify the remains. "As far as archaeological facts show, it should be the tomb of Cao Cao," says Wang Wei, head of the institute of China's highest archeological authority and leader of the expert team to Henan. "The posthumous title of 'King Wu of Wei' was in use for less than a year, so the reference of the inscriptions found in the tomb is very accurate and precise to this particular juncture in history." He also pointed out that both the tomb scale and structure showed it to be a final resting place of royalty. Finally, the tomb's location and condition corresponded with that of Gaoling as described in historical records. "The importance of the information on the entombed provided by the inscriptions on unearthed artifacts is indisputable," he added.

The Henan excavation team had opened two pits, Tombs No. 1 and No. 2, clearing only one of them before winter weather forced them to suspend the dig last December. According to Pan Weibin, head of the Henan excavation team, they will resume excavation of Tomb No. 1 this spring. Wang Wei emphasized cautiously that his current, albeit well-developed, hypothesis was only a preliminary conclusion. A final and definitive pronouncement will not be made until the excavation of Tomb No. 1 is complete and more comparative studies – textual and archeological – of all the artifacts are possible.