I visited several minor Belgian locations and cemeteries of this tWHS over the past years and in May 2023 I focused mainly on the French locations around the Ossuary of Douaumont. The latter visit fully convinced me that this tWHS truly possesses tangible OUV as the area around Verdun is basically one whole cultural/memorial landscape shaped by World War I.

The Douamont Ossuary is managed by a private foundation that clearly underlines that the site is "non-subsidised since 1919 although recognised as promoting the public interest". I tried to keep this in mind when paying the 7 euro ticket for a well-presented overview view video and the chance to visit the "cloister" and climb the 46 metre tower known as the Lantern of the Dead, which contains a 2 tonne bell which is struck at 12 and at 4pm. The tower is given this name as it partly lights the battlefield and the necropolis at night and the panoramic view of the cemetery from the top gives you a better idea of the sheer size and landscape shaped by war. On either side of the entrance to the tower, the 133 metre main gallery is home to 46 cenotaphs in 18 alcoves. These symbolic tomb stones cover spaces containing the remains found in various areas of the battlefield. Without paying for any ticket, these spaces and countless bones and skulls can be seen through the windows located at the rear of the monument. In the cloister, the names of more than 4,000 soldiers who never returned from the battlefield of Verdun, regardless of their nationality and their religion, have been engraved and painted on the walls and new names keep being added every year. At the end of the cloister is a shield, where the memorial flame is relit during cerimonies.

Outside, I made sure to visit the Muslim and Jewish funerary monuments, the Fort of Douamont, other small monuments scattered here and there. I did part of the forest trail of Thiaumont just behind the ossuary, before I was overwhelmed by mosquitoes, and then I decided to continue hiking opposite the ossuary towards the few remains or memorials of the destroyed villages of Douamont and Fleury-Devant-Douamont and the museum of Verdun. In my case, the locations around Verdun were excellent to portray the OUV in a tangible way, apart from the intangible aspects of this tWHS. In the near future, I hope to be able to visit other important sites, above all Thiepval, hopefully after this transnational site gets inscribed.