The Berbers or the Amazighs (Berber: ⵉⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⴻⵏ, plural: Imazighen / Imaziɣen, singular: Amazigh) are a Caucasian group of people ethnically indigenous to North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are distributed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Niger River. Historically, they spoke Berber languages, which together form the "Berber branch" of the Afro-Asiatic language family.