The Basques come from the north parts of Spain and the south part of France where the two counties meet. They are an indigenous ethnic group characterized by the Basque language, a common culture and shared ancestry to the ancient Vascones, who were a pre-Roman tribe who inhabited a territory that spanned between the upper course of the Ebro river and the southern basin of the western Pyrenees, and Aquitanians, who were a people living in what is now southern and southwestern France.
Basques are indigenous to and primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country, a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.