The setting begins in Brussels, Belgium, called the city of the “white tomb” (Conrad 7). Although described as a pure place, there was still a sense of evil. As Marlow travels upriver on a steamboat, he goes deeper and deeper into a wilderness that represents darkness and a place of suffering seen through images of Marlow's description, "...death lurking in the air , in the water, in the bush. They had to die like flies here” (Conrad 4). Like the jungle of Heart of Darkness, the Vietnamese and Cambodian jungles of Apocalypse Now represent evil and the unknown. “When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think about was going back to the jungle” (Coppola) The jungle has an everlasting effect on everyone