Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany cancelled a scheduled visit to Luxor on Monday in the wake of the bomb attack at Cairo’s Coptic cathedral a day earlier which killed at least 23 people.

El-Enany had been scheduled to inaugurate a temporary exhibition marking the 41st anniversary of Luxor Museum, and to visit a number of antiquities sites in the governorate.

The minister had initially announced on Sunday that the inauguration would go ahead and only a celebration following the event would be cancelled.

El-Enany has condemned the bombing at Cairo’s Coptic cathedral complex, as well as a similar bomb attack on Friday which killed six police personnel in Giza.

"Both attacks are criminal acts that violate the principles of all religions and moral values in targeting innocents and soldiers protecting the nation," he told Ahram Online.

Elham Salah, head of the Ministry of Antiquities' Museums Department, said that the temporary exhibition at Luxor Museum is to last 60 days and put on show a collection of 40 artefacts that were unearthed at King Amenhotep III's temple on Luxor's west bank.