Based on six weeks of fieldwork, this dissertation aims to provide an account of the close links between heritage experience and the heritage-making process. The first part of this work examines how the notion of "heritage" encodes different conceptualizations, each reflecting singular experiences of the world. Emphasizing the importance of communication and conceptual expertise in the construction of heritage experience, we suggest studying the acts of translation that precede heritage-making. This perspective is illustrated by two geographical case studies. The first draws on an extensive archival collection to trace in detail the context of the first inscriptions of rock art sites in Namibia between 1950 and 1954. The second study is based on interviews and observations to examine in detail the context of the current inscription process for rock art sites in Namibia’s Erongo Mountains. Throughout the dissertation, the act of translating heritage experience is interrogated, either explicitly through a conceptual examination of the elements that influence it, or implicitly through an analysis of the contexts in which heritage processes take place. Ultimately, this dissertation, situated at the crossroads of disciplinary fields, offers a new space of exploration for apprehending some of the issues at stake in heritage studies.