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what to call the point at which all paths meet?
they often become major trade hubs, or busy bustling cities, because it's a huge intersection, a crossroads but on a greater scale.
If you control the _______ you control the world.
I realise I was most likely searching for an idiom, a historical town or so that has come into common usage and now means what I describe above.
Looking to your example, I'll suggest two words.
Hub check the entry 2 in Oxford Dictionary
The effective center of an activity, region, or network.
"Today, the area around the vast pond is the hub of commercial activity in the city."
And, the second word is Junction.
A place where two or more roads or railway lines meet.
(used in the sentence figuratively) “Zone III is considered a very attractive project to invest in, given its prime location in the international business junction that saw land prices growing continuously,” the company says.
On reading the title, I was immediately going to answer intersection—until I saw that it was already in the question.
I can't think of a different word (other than intersection or crossroads) that is literally about roads, and you've already used hub in your question.
I can, however, provide two related words—as defined at Merriam-Webster:
1 : CONNECTION, LINK
// the nexus between teachers and students
also : a causal link
// the nexus between poverty and crime
2 : a connected group or series
// a nexus of theories
// a nexus of relationships
3 : CENTER, FOCUS // The bookstore has become something of a nexus for the downtown neighborhood.
—Jane Smiley
1 : a central and often foundational part usually distinct from the enveloping part by a difference in nature
// the core of the city
Potentially confluence, Merriam Webster:
a coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point
