The Atlas Mountains is a place steeped in mystery. Legends and folklore hang over the small Berber settlements that dot this rocky region; ancient stories passed down from generation to generation over late-night fires crackling under the Moroccan stars. One such tale — more recent but no less magical — tells of an eccentric Englishman crash landing his hot air balloon near the village of Asni. The hapless traveller was none other than Sir Richard Branson on one of his many Phileas Fogg-inspired jaunts.
Thankfully, the mission wasn’t a complete failure as it was during this emergency pit stop that Branson first saw Kasbah Tamadot: a palatial home owned by Italian interior designer and antiques dealer Luciano Tempo. In 1998, at the insistence of his late mother Eve, Branson bought the property.
