How is Apache httpd content negotiation set up on a directory?

I’m trying to set up content negotiation on the root directory of my domain. The language-specific versions of the page reside at /{en,es,ar,…}/ (or /{en,es,ar,…}/index.html, where the actual file is).

Because of this structure, it doesn’t appear that I can use MultiViews. So I tried to set up a type-map…but I don’t know where to put it. The instructions say:

Type map files should have the same name as the resource which they are describing, followed by the extension .var.

I tried /index.var, but I get a 403 on /. Also with /.var.

The type-map looks like:

# Apache httpd mod_negotiation variants
URI: /

URI: /en/index.html
Content-language: en
Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8

URI: /ar/index.html
Content-language: ar
Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8

URI: /es/index.html
Content-language: es
Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8

URI: /zh-Hans/index.html
Content-language: zh-Hans
Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8